The CALL Scotland Annual Report for 2010 - 2011 is now available online.

Some highlights of the year include:

• Closer links with key players in Scottish Education, including the Scottish Government, HM Inspectorate of Education and Learning and Teaching Scotland (now Education Scotland), the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA), Scottish ICT Dvelopment Group.
• Partnership Agreements with 13 local authorities.
• Input into development of new Scottish Government policy for Augmentative and Alternative Communication.
• 2,000 requests for digital papers in the 2010 diet of SQA exams.
• 915 items listed on the Scottish Books for All Database, accessible through Glow and SCRAN.
• 69 Hodder Gibson text books made available in accessible format from the CALL Books for All web site.
• 15,042 downloads of the WordTalk utility to add text-to-speech to Microsoft Word.
• 190,866 visits to the CALL web sites.
• 81 pupils with additional support needs provided with assessment and support.
• 99 support sessions delivered to schools.
• 635 teachers provided with on-site training in local authorities.
• 128 teachers attended courses in CALL.
• 519 enquiries received and given a response.
• 294 items added to the Loan Bank.
• 142 new equipment loans made to children and adults with disabilities in Scotland.

Read about all this and more in the CALL Scotland Annual Report!

Yesterday Apple launched iBooks 2, a new version of the iBooks app for iThingys; iBooks Author, a program for the Mac which is for writing and designing iBooks, and a range of interactive textbooks. The video about the interactive textbooks video a well worth a look - very promotional but also inspiring, and particularly relevant for those of us involved in supporting students with print disabilities.

Coincidentally, yesterday we ran a course for the first time on eBooks, Kindles and iPads. Preparing for it was an educational experience for Stuart, Sandra, Craig and I, and we learned a lot about the features and also limitations of Kindles, iPads and commercial eBooks.

A few observations, just from this one course:

• Over half the teachers on the course owned a Kindle.
• A teacher from a Primary unit for pupils with visual impairment has 6 Kindles and she says she's almost stopped using paper large print completely - she emails the materials to the Kindles and the pupils use large font sizes on the devices instead. It saves a lot of paper, printing and therefore money, and the pupils prefer the Kindles to most (not all) of the paper large print books (books with large colour diagrams might not be that good on the Kindle screen). It's also a lot quicker - printing out 800 pages of 36 pt text takes a long time, whereas emailing the file to the Kindles takes seconds. 
• Another teacher on the course has a son who is dyslexic. He used to need coloured overlays to read books and was never a great reader, but he can see the Kindle screen display: she says he now spends hours reading books on the Kindle whereas before he never read for pleasure.   
• Participants generally felt that the Kindle, iPad, iPod etc have a considerable 'cool' factor, which is of course a big issue. And because they are mainstream devices, you don't look that different if you use one to read books.
• The eBook formats and readers are definitely becoming more accessible - bigger range of fonts, options to change colours and font sizes, better access with text-to-speech software.
• Some public libraries (Edinburgh, Dundee and South Ayrshire, at least) are now offering eBooks on loan. You can borrow a book and read it on your computer, iPod, iPad, Android device etc.
• The most exciting thing, for me, is the huge increase in the availability of books and materials - as well as Kindle, we have iBooks, WH Smith, Google Book store. Although the commercial eBook formats and readers may not give us everything we want in terms of accessibility (yet), they are getting there, and we are already seeing how the technology can give print disabled pupils access to learning materials in a way that is quicker, cheaper, easier and more independent than what we had before.

Well - the iPad is truly everywhere these days. Watch these fascinating videos - turns out that orangutans also like iPads!

They like to watch videos, paint, play kids' Apps, watch other orang utans via Skype, ebooks etc.

I have always been very interested in primate language studies and I'm now intrigued by how the situation has evolved. It started with  having the primate brought up as child in a psychologist's home with the careful teaching of sign language over many years - with interminable Behaviourist teaching & analysis of language 'performance'.  Now people are just using technology as a day to day tool for stimulation  - and the animals don't get ANY 'rewards', just the pleasure of intercting and playing with the device (take that, Skinner!)

And for communication, now just sticking photos on an iPad under its nose and saying "show me the 'x' "(hang on to the end to see iPad use).

Not too sure what to make of it all, though. Next step, it seems,  may be social networking?...(I can only fantasise about orang utans themselves signing up to Avaaz and all the online petitions against habitat-grabbing for palm oil plantations!)

Jean Gross, Communication Champion for Children, has produced her final report as she steps down from office. Although her remit was restricted to England, 'Two Years On: final report of the Communication Champion for children' reflects on issues that are also very relevant for people with communication difficulties in other parts of the United Kingdom - and probably many other countries.

She was appointed to the post following the Bercow Review of 2008, which found that services for children and young people with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) were highly variable across England.

The report highlights a number of areas where there have been measurable improvements in services since 2008, but expresses concern about the actual provision that will be available for children with SLCN for the immediate future. There have been cuts to front line speech and language therapy services and to specialist advisory teaching services at a time when there has been a 58% rise in the number of children with SLCN.

Jean Gross spoke about the report on BBC Radio Four on 16th January, highlighting a number of issues.

The Report can be downloaded from the Communication Matters web site.

The 2011 Scottish Children's Book Awards is an innovative nationwide reading project in which children and young people from every corner of Scotland read and vote for their favourite Scottish children's books of the year. Votes MUST reach Scottish Book Trust by 5.30pm on Friday 27th January 2012 to be included in the final count.

Last year:

• over 40,000 children registered and an amazing 17,000 votes were cast;
• children and young people from every local authority in Scotland, from Aberdeen to Dumfries; Shetland to Arran, took part;
• nearly 1,000 accessible copies of the books were provided to young judges by RNIB and CALL.

The awards were originally set up by the Scottish Arts Council in 1999 and are now run by Scottish Book Trust.

Children can vote for their favourite book, from a shortlist in each of three categories, either as individual readers or as part of a reading group in a school, library or bookshop. The shortlisted books are:

Early Years (0 - 7 years)

• Dear Vampa by Ross Collins
• The Loon on the Moon by Emily Golden
• Apple Pie ABC by Alison Murray

Younger Readers (8 - 11 years)

• Zac and the Dream Pirates by Ross MacKenzie
• There's a Hamster in my Pocket! by Franzeska G Ewart
• The Case of the London Dragonfish by Joan Lennon

Older Readers (11 - 16 years)

• Wasted by Nicola Morgan
• The Blackhope Enigma by Teresa Flavin
• The Prisoner of the Inquisition by Theresa Breslin

But what about disabled children who can't read the books?

CALL Scotland has worked with the Scottish Book Trust and the authors and publishers to create accessible digital versions of the nine shortlisted books. The idea is that children and young people with physical, visual and reading or dyslexic difficulties, who can't read or access the paper books, can read the digital books instead and take part in the awards. For example:

• children with spinal injury, cerebral palsy or other physical impairments can click a switch or press a key on a computer, to turn pages and read the books by themselves;
• dyslexic readers or children with visual impairments can change the font size and/or colours on screen, or use text-to-speech software to read the books;
• the books can be read out by the computer using "Heather", the high quality Scottish computer voice that is available free for schools and pupils from CALL Scotland's The Scottish Voice web site.

The books are available free of charge. Readers and schools can request accessible digital copies of the book(s) they wish to read via the Books for All website or phoning 0131 651 6236.