Maine students' voices...

Here are some recordings of Maine students who currently use Accessible Instructional Materials in their schoolwork. The recordings were made into brief video clips and have been captioned. The transcript of their words are written below. If you do not have the QuickTime player plug-in for your browser, your browser may try to download it for you. You will neeed to have JavaScript on to view these segments. You may also download QuickTime for your computer from this link.

Here's what some Maine students have to say...

Annie

My name is Annie, and I use a lot of adaptive equipment. I have cerebral palsy and I use books on tape because I have a visual impairment. When I was in Sophomore English, I used books on CD to read the books so I didn't have a lot of eyestrain. My experience in class was better because instead of spending hours reading a book I could use CDs to help with the eyestrain.

Hear Annie in her own words

Joseph

My name is Joseph. I am 16 and I'm a sophomore. Just recently, I used an audio (format) for a book called Gilgamesh. (Audio books) have really improved how I can understand how and what the book is about. It has also made it easier to visualize the events that happen.

Hear Joseph in his own words

And some other students' voices...

Please note: If you are a screen reader user, the following YouTube videos may not work with your assistive technology. To resolve this, we have created an alternative version of the Kids' Voices YouTube videos that should work with your screen reader.

Tyler is a 12 year old boy from Maine who uses his MLTI laptop to read e-text books. In this brief video, Tyler demonstrates how he opens up his Science textbook on his laptop using the Mac's native screen reader called VoiceOver.

Chase is a 12 year old boy with a print disability who has his own YouTube Channel called Braille Plus. Chase regularly produces videos about Braille products and assistive technology. In this recent video, Chase introduces us to the new APH BookPort Plus. If you like Chase's videos and have a YouTube subscription, you can "subscribe" to his channel and YouTube will inform you when Chase posts a new video.

Alex Clark is a 13 year old boy from New York who has a print disability. He uses digital books acquired from Bookshare and assistive technology from Kurzweil to read. You may view more videos on Bookshare's YouTube Channel.

Jessica Pinto is a student with a print disability from New Mexico who also uses digital books acquired from Bookshare. You may view more videos on Bookshare's YouTube Channel.

Leslie Holt is an 8 year old student with a print disability who uses audio books acquired from Recordings for the Blind and Dyslexic (RFB&D). You may view more videos on RFB&D's YouTube Channel.

This is a video made at the Jenkins School in Massachusetts which tells the story of Brendan and Sam, two students with print disabilities who use Braille books to read and a Perkins Brailler to write notes. This video is from the Patriot Ledger YouTube Channel.

And check out the Bookshare Rap - What Am I? From the Bookshare Team YouTube Channel.

Photo credit: top photo licensed from Creative Commons by Extra Ketchup