Despite the popularity of the iPad it is surprising there are only 23 background wallpapers to choose from.

These consist of a range of mellow or atmospheric images and scenes including dewy grass, a cobbled street, tree rings, a carved totem pole, flowers, crashing waves, denim and other patterned options.

Although you can download many other wallpaper scenes from a range of online sources, they tend to follow a similar vein and lack the simplicity of a plain natural background.

Many users may find the selection of wallpapers currently on offer (or as the iPad’s default) unsuitable, distracting and/or even difficult to view. I personally use a yellow background/wallpaper, and although it isn't a perfect solution, it does help me when I'm looking at the screen for long periods of time.

Choose and download a colour wallpaper of your choice

To help, CALL have developed a selection of plain, simple and natural coloured wallpapers which you can download and use on your iPad for free.

Although you can’t set the wallpaper to function as a global colour (e.g. in Settings and other Apps) you can use one of the plain coloured backgrounds when viewing the main screens and when moving between screens of Apps.

Choose from 11 different plain colours

We currently have 11 colours that you can freely download and use on your iPad, regardless of the model (iPad 1, 2 or New iPad).

I recommend that you download your chosen background by using your iPad. If you are unable to download the background then try sending it by email to your iPad (see below for instructions to set the background/wallpaper).

Download the Yellow background

Download the Cream background

Download the Mauve background

Download the Rose background

Download the Purple background

Download the Orange background

Download the Mustard background

Download the Blue background

Download the Green background

Download the Grey background

Download the White background

Changing the background with your chosen wallpaper

First, you will need to download one of the backgrounds and save it to the Photos App which comes as a pre-installed App with your iOS. When the downloaded file appears tap and hold your finger until the pop-up menu appears. Select 'Save Image' - the image automatically saves to the Photos App.

Next, choose "Brightness & Wallpaper" from the menu on the left side of the settings screen.

Choose the Wallpaper tab under the brightness settings to go to the Wallpaper settings – there is also an arrow just to the right of the two iPad images.

Look for the wallpaper you have just downloaded and select it.

After choosing your selected wallpaper, you will be taken to a preview of the picture you want to use for the iPad's background. 

To set the background, either tap the button labelled 'Set Lock Screen' to set the photo for your lock screen, 'Set Home Screen' to make the photo appear underneath your app icons or 'Set Both' for the background to be used as the global image or colour for your iPad.

If you require a 'global' colour solution you can purchase transparency coloured overlays which you fit onto the iPad's screen.

You can download the complete tutorial in PDF by selecting this link

What’s new in Clicker 6?

Bryan Adamson, who recently joined Crick Software as their Scottish Educational Consultant, will be hosting the next CALL Live webinar (free) on Tuesday 20th November at 1pm. 

Clicker is well established and widely used to provide literacy support for pupils with a wide range of additional support needs.

The latest version, Clicker 6, allows pupils to work more independently. Clicker 6 also helps teachers to easily and quickly create Clicker Set resources  for individual pupils or groups of pupils.

What will the Clicker 6 webinar cover?

The webinar will provide an overview of the ways in which Clicker 6 supports reading and writing  and will also show how Clicker 6 can be easily tailored to meet the needs of individual pupils.

The new ‘wizards’ that are used to create resources will also be demonstrated.

Read more and book your place on the free Clicker 6 webinar now.

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Widgit Symbols 

In the recent series of CALL Live webinars, Tina Detheridge of Widigt Software provided an informative presentation on Widgit Symbols.  

Tina talked about Widgit’s work in relation to collaborating with diverse groups in both symbol development and in the use of symbols in different settings, e.g. consulting with therapists, teachers and users to enable better symbol support and to make it easier to write well with symbols.  

Tina discussed what makes Widgit Symbols different from other symbols and outlined the various projects that Widgit are involved in. She also explained some of the ways in which Widgit Symbols are being used outside of the traditional SEN environment, focusing on current medical and prison projects. 

To view Tina’s CALL Live  webinar select this link. 

Addressing Dyslexia Teacher's Toolkit

Find out about the revised Dyslexia Teachers Toolkit

Dr. Margaret Crombie will be hosting the next CALL Live Webinar on 10th October (Wednesday) at 1.pm. Margaret will discuss and demonstrate the recently revised Dyslexia Teachers’ Toolkit.

A bit about Margaret…

Dr Margaret Crombie is an associate lecturer with the Open University (Difficulties in Literacy Development course) and is also supervisor to a number of doctorate students. She chairs the AMBDA (Associate Membership of the British Dyslexia Association) panel for the Open University.  This is the panel that approves applications for accreditation of assessment and teaching practice for those working in the dyslexia field.

Margaret is also a member of the British Dyslexia Association Accreditation Board and of Dyslexia Scotland.  

Margaret has considerable previous experience of working in the dyslexia field, not least as a specialist teacher.  Margaret has researched into various aspects of dyslexia, and has chaired the working group that has produced the Addressing Dyslexia Toolkit. 

Book your place

CALL Live Webinar: recording now available to view

As part of the on-going CALL Live webinar series, Jamie Munro of Inclusive Technology provided an informative and interesting session on Co:Writer today.  As someone who has used Co:Writer for many years I learnt a great deal from the session, so thanks to Jamie. 

Jamie covered some of the basic features in Co:Writer but also explored a few advanced features and offered some good ideas to support pupils with literacy difficulties, such as selecting existing topic dictionaries (and creating new topics dictionaries) to help with spelling. Jamie also covered how to make the most of flexible spelling, setting preferences in word clouds, word lists, managing user settings and much more. 

View the recording 

As with all CALL Live webinars, today’s session was recorded so you view the webinar at time that’s convenient to you. The session lasted for 20 minutes and you can view the recording by selecting this link.

Next webinar

Dr. Margaret Crombie will be hosting the next CALL Live webinar  on 10th October (Wednesday) at 1.pm.  Margaret will discuss and demonstrate the recently revised Dyslexia Teachers’ Toolkit.

CALL Live

Call is delighted to announce that we are broadcasting a series of free short webinars ‘CALL Live’, to keep you up-to-date with new developments in ICT and inclusion. 

What is CALL Live?

CALL Live is a series of free online workshops (sometimes known as webinars) with a focus on supporting ICT and ASN in your organisation. Sessions consist of a short video introduction followed by a ‘how to’ workshop using desktop sharing. The webinars will be hosted by CALL staff with guest speakers from ICT suppliers and other professional organisations. 

What time does it start?

Each session will commence at 13.00 and is scheduled to last for 20 minutes, although depending on the amount of participation and debate they could last longer. But you are free to join or leave the session whenever you want. 

What do I need to do?

The workshops are delivered to your computer’s desktop over the Internet. To book your place at one of the events (see What's on the programme below) simply send an email to Craig (indicating which event you want to attend) and he will send you the link for the webinar. On the day of the webinar, a couple of minutes before the start, click on the link and you will be directed to Adobe Connect, where you can sign in to join the workshop. 

All you need is a pair of headphones (with a microphone) for your computer, then simply tune-in to view, or even participate in the workshop. Please check your headphones are working before you enter the workshop. 

What if I miss a workshop?

Each workshop will be recorded and archived which means that if you miss a session, you can watch it again at a time that’s convenient to you. Links to the recorded sessions will be posted on the CALL website. 

What’s on the programme?

• 30 August (Thursday), Craig Mill on the Ease of Access Guide in Windows 7
• 11 September (Tuesday), Ian Bean on switch access and iPads.
• 2 October (Tuesday), Jamie Munro on Co:Writer
• 10 October (Wednesday), Dr. Margaret Crombie on the recently revised Dyslexia Teachers’ Toolkit
• 23 October (Tuesday), Tina Detheridge on Widgit software
• 13 November (Tuesday), Dougal Hawes on the Grid 2
• 20 November (Tuesday) Bryan Adamson - an overview of Clicker 6

If you are interested in using the iPad to support your pupils then you will probably be familiar with the large number of websites that have appeared over the past year offering ‘lists of Apps’ to support a range of difficulties including communication, literacy, numeracy etc. Some examples include Apps to support AAC, Apps to support literacy as well as Apps to support magnification and vision. 

While these are useful resources, particularly if you’re new to the iPad and unsure which Apps to download (and feeling a bit overwhelmed with so many Apps to choose from), lists of endless Apps have their limitations. 

As Apps become increasingly more sophisticated and offer improved features and options, I think there is much to be gained from using the built-in sharing and export features to create ‘integrative workflows’ for pupils. Using integrative workflows is about exploiting what an App has to offer or making the most of its main features. For example, there are a number of ‘literacy support’ Apps which have a ‘Send to App’ option, allowing learners to plan an essay using a mind map, export the mind map to a text-to-speech App for proof reading and finally sending the text to a word processor for formatting, final spell checking and submission. 

This is a similar approach for pupils with dyslexia when writing an essay or project – use a visual mind map to get down the main points, use nodes and notes to expand on ideas and finally export the mind map to a word processing program such as Word. Additional support in the form of word prediction or text-to-speech, is often provided via programs such as TextHelp Read&Gold, Co:Writer or even Penfriend. 

If you would like to find out more I’ve written a short article which explains this process in 4 simple steps. You can download the article by selecting this link. 

Reduced price and free Apps to mark World Autism Awareness Day

World Autism Awareness Day took place on April 2nd and to mark the event a number of App developers such as Good Karma Applications offered over 60 discounted Apps (including many free Apps) to download from the App Store. The Apps are predominantly for the iOS, ie, iPhone/iPod Touch and iPad with only one App available for the Android platform.

Don’t worry if you missed the offer as many of the Apps are still available at the same discounted price. 

The list of Apps is divided into 10 categories such as Social Behaviour, Social Stories and Communication with Images. Each App has a short descriptive overview of its functionality as well as a list of languages supported by the Apps.

There’s even a link directly to the App Store so you don’t have to spend hours of searching through thousands of Apps to find the right one.

The Apps list is hosted on the iAutism site which also offers a wide-range of useful resources including Autism related Apps Reviews, Technology and Tutorials.

Visit the iAutism site to find out more.

iPad Accessibility Options

iPads have a range of built-in Accessibility options such as text-to-speech (VoiceOver) and screen magnification (Zoom) which are particularly useful for learners with a visual difficulty. For example VoiceOver will read information on the iPad's screen including icons, settings and text-based apps such as email, word processing and web pages. These options will allow a pupil who is blind or has a visual impairment to independently access, use and enjoy an iPad in the same way as a sighted user. 

Capacitive touchscreen

However for those pupils who have fine motor difficulties the iPad’s touch screen can be difficult or impossible to use. The iPad has a capacitive touchscreen and requires finger and hand gestures such as ‘Pinching’, ‘Swiping’ and ‘Tapping’ to move between and open and close Apps. Increasingly there are Apps which support fine motor skills and contain 'tap' and 'hold' or 'delay' settings but these only work from within the App. This means that a pupil with a motor difficulty can use certain Apps with these features but would be unable to access other areas of the screen independently. Companies such as BeyondAdaptive offer keyguards which can be placed over the screen but as there are so many varied touch and tap positions between Apps, this option is impracticable and expensive. 

Another option is to connect a USB keyboard (with a keyguard) to an iPad using a USB Camera Connection Kit but again this would only allow access to text input based Apps such as Notes or Pages.

Switch Access

Switch access is another option but developments in this area are still in the early stages. Currently the conventional way of setting up a switch to an iPad is by pairing a Bluetooth device using the Bluetooth option in the Settings menu (Settings – General – Bluetooth).

Bluetooth examples include RJ Cooper's Bluetooth Super-Switch; the Switchbox by Therapy-Box and AbleNet’s Blue2 Bluetooth Switch. Another option is the ‘it-iClick - iPad Switch Interface’ by Inclusive Technology which plugs directly into the iPad but still requires to be ‘paired’ before it can be used. Pairing devices is not an exact science particularly if there are other Bluetooth devices active in a small area. Setting up Bluetooth switch access can be challenging and time consuming. 

Unfortunately not all Apps are switch accessible and the range of options between switch enabled Apps vary from a range of comprehensive settings such as Step-scan, Row/column, Auditory scanning to very basic settings such as ‘Turn Scan On/Off. Jane Farrall’s Blog provides an excellent guide to ‘How do I use a switch with an iPad’ and a comprehensive list of switch accessible Apps (in PDF format).

However a more recent development is the exciting work by Komodo OpenLab and the Inclusive Design Research Centre who have developed a full switch access solution to iOS devices  and claim that it is “the first-ever single-switch solution providing access to the entire iDevice, not just a few apps!”

The following video provides a preview of the switch access system in action.

With so much information available these days it can be difficult and time-consuming trying to keep track of all your favourite and useful resources. Wouldn’t it be so much easier if you could find everything in one place? Social Bookmarking websites such as Delicious help you to organise and store web pages and web links in one place. Resources can be categorised and tagged so they are easy to find.

CALL Scotland now feature their own Delicious social bookmarking site which offers a one-stop-shop to a wealth of resources including free resources, accessible information and some great iPad apps and accessories to support learners with communication and literacy difficulties.

To visit the CALL Delicious resources select this link

Ease of Access Centre Guide

Microsoft has included a range of accessibility features (Accessibility Options) in its operating systems since Windows 95.

Windows 7 incorporates several improvements such as a change of name from 'Accessibility Options' to 'Ease of Access Centre'. These features provide a valuable but often overlooked method of supporting learners with additional support needs.

The Ease of Access Centre, found in the Control Panel, brings together all the accessibility options and adds some new features.

You can download the Ease of Access Centre Guide from the CALL website - for free.

Windows 7 On-Screen Keyboard video tutorial

One of the new built-in features is the On-Screen Keyboard which offers word prediction to help with typing speed and accuracy. The following tutorial highlights some of the key features.