Accessibility – a Good Reason to use an iPad

Lots of schools have iPad in classrooms, sometimes one for each child, sometimes a set between classes; however your school uses them generally, iPads are invaluable for children with special needs. Obviously, you can load some excellent apps, but also the iOS Accessibility Options make them very versatile in accommodating the needs of our special learners.

There are some decisions you need to make before using the iPad with a child.

You may have a child with poor mobility who needs the iPad positioned on a desk to use it. What size iPad is going to be best? Will the child use the iPad in landscape or portrait position? Will their fingers reach the keyboards? (This is an important question if the child has poor motor function and may need to rest a hand on the iPad to steady herself.) The iPad may need to sit on a “sticky pad” to stop it being pushed along the table when being used.

What cover and stand do you need for this particular child? (Do you need a very rugged case?) An iPad holder with a “foot” that allows the iPad to stand without being held will be useful. There are also all sorts of mounts that can be used if the child you work with has a wheelchair.

Are you using apps with speech feedback, so do you need headphones and if so which ones? Make sure they are rugged enough to stand up to daily use.

Ideally each child with SEND should have a machine personalized for them that they have access to whenever it is needed.

Some iOS Accessibility options

With Typing Feedback your device can give you feedback as you type as well as speaking corrections and word suggestions.

To set up typing feedback go to Settings >General >Accessibility >Speech >Typing feedback

Here you can turn on character feedback, speak words or speak auto text.

You can also have predictions spoken: you can touch and hold on a word to hear predictions as you type.

Speak Selection lets the user highlight text in any application and will read the text. Users can increase the font size in various apps and iPad also offers an audio option for confirming keyboard actions.

Guided Access on the iPad may be the most useful accessibility option! It temporarily restricts your device to a single app, so the user cannot navigate away from it until the activity is complete.

You can also disable areas of the screen that are irrelevant to the task and you can disable the hardware button to set up guided access.

Go to Settings >General >Accessibility >Guided Access.  You must set a pass code that controls the use of guided access and prevent someone from leaving an active session

With the iBooks app (available as a free download), ebooks can be downloaded, organised, and read. iBooks is compatible with VoiceOver, so you can have books read aloud. It is possible to read in different orientations and to choose larger font sizes or different fonts.

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