Autism Awareness Month: Discounted AAC and Literacy Apps

The time of year has arrived again where many AAC and literacy apps become discounted in honor of Autism Acceptance/Awareness Month. If you're looking to purchase an AAC or literacy app don't miss your chance to download select apps at a substantial discount. It is important to note the specific sale dates for each app as they vary!! Additionally, deeper discounts are available if you are purchasing these apps in bulk through Apple's VPP (Volume Purchasing Program). 

SLP, AAC Consultant, AT Consultant, Special Educator, Lauren Enders, created the following graphics below. Please be sure to click the links to the graphic as well as a spreadsheet with links for purchasing/downloading apps.

Here's the link to a PDF of this graphic for sharing: http://bit.ly/aacappsalegraphicmarchapril18

Here's the link to the spreadsheet with sale dates and download links: http://bit.ly/aacappsalesmarchapril18

Source: https://www.facebook.com/LaurenSEndersMaCccSlp/

Where It's AT Blogiversary: Giveaway #4: Attainment's GOTalk Now & Bee Visual's Choiceworks & Calendar

*Update: Congratulations to our randomly selected main prize winner: Janet F.! A secondary congrats to our other winners: Maureen T., Angie S. & Katie C. Be sure to check out each day's giveaways!*

Today's bundled giveaway is an incredible value and one not to miss....

Thanks to the amazing folks at Attainment Company and BeeVisual, LLC, all Where It's AT subscribers will have the chance to win a copy of the AAC app GoTalk Now by Attainment Company paired with a free download of BeeVisual, LLC's Choiceworks and Choiceworks Calendar. All downloads are compatible with iOS

Additionally, 3 other lucky winners will get their own download codes for Choiceworks and Choiceworks Calendar. Read below to learn more about each of the items in today's giveaway! 

GoTalk NOW by Attainment Company

Attainment has been making augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) tools for 25 years. Our experience is front and center in GoTalk NOW, a flexible, easy-to-use, yet powerful app for people who have difficulty speaking.

NOW combines the simplicity of GoTalks (Attainment’s popular original AAC device) with the dynamic capabilities of an iPad. GoTalk NOW has all the essentials of an effective AAC app, like adjustable page layouts, customizable navigation, recorded and text-to-speech capabilities, and an included symbol set. But we sweated the details to create unique and compelling features that clearly separate NOW from other AAC apps.

The new NOW offers three styles of communication pages: Standard, Express, and Scenes. In Standard pages, the action occurs when the location is pressed. In Express pages, recorded or text-to-speech messages build in a speech bar and play in sequence when the bar is pressed. Scene pages are built around a single photo or image. When you arrange invisible hotspots over people or objects in the photo, the hotspots play speech, music, or videos! 

Features:
• Choose 1, 2, 4, 9, 16, 25 or 36 locations per page.
• Use images from your iPad camera, photo library, or the Imagine Symbol set.
• Search the Internet in-app for the perfect image or icon.
• Purchase SymbolStix or Widgit Symbols libraries in-app.
• Crop, scale, or rotate an image using your fingers.
• Combine multiple images in a single communication location.
• Color pages, borders, and text with any hue.
• Move and size text with your fingers so it feels just right.
• Record your voice or use our free text-to-speech voice.
• Buy higher quality voices for only 99 cents each, available in over 20 languages.
• Add spoken labels (auditory cues) to any button. Great for scanning, guiding visually impaired users, and identifying any new or difficult vocabulary.
• Trim videos in-app, and play them from any communication location.
• Select our alternate video interface to pause or exit the video easily.
• Link songs from your playlist to any communication location and control them with Pause/Play, Next, and Previous.
• Include a core vocabulary button for extra quick access to important messages.
• Create multimedia social stories and step-by-step instruction layouts by linking pages with an after action.
• Share complete communication books via WiFi with any iPad user who has NOW.
• Back up communication books via Dropbox or to any Mac or PC for safekeeping.
• Store and share interactive templates (each including speech, video, text, and jump to links) on our online gallery for free.
• Download and edit premade templates from Attainment’s collection on the public gallery, also free.
• Email links to your templates to parents and colleagues, who can open the template on their iPad by tapping on the link.
• Print and save communication book layouts via PDFs.
• Access Now with single or two-switch scanning.

Choiceworks & Choiceworks Calendar by BeeVisual, LLC

Choiceworks App




The Choiceworks App is a picture-based learning tool that helps children complete daily routines (morning, day, & night), understand & control their feelings and improve their waiting skills (taking turns and not interrupting). Created with the support of leading hospitals and child development specialists, this app is designed for caregivers to provide clear and consistent support to foster a child’s independence, positive behavior, and emotional regulation at home and in the community. It can also be customized for teachers in a school setting.

Key Features

■ Three boards: Schedule, Waiting, and Feelings
■ Three Companion Books supporting each board
■ Image Library preloaded with over 180 images and audio
■ Add your own images and record your own audio for limitless customizability
■ Attach video to any board image
■ Easily create profiles to personalize and manage multiple users
■ Save an unlimited number of boards for multiple children or different routines
■ Speaks boards out loud with professionally recorded audio
■ Time saving essentials like search and auto-save
■ Share boards by Email or iTunes File Sharing with other Choiceworks app users
■ Ability to print boards or save as PDF

Choiceworks Calendar

The Choiceworks Calendar is a full-featured, kid friendly calendar app designed to help children learn concepts of time and help caregivers to keep them organized. By presenting the abstract concept of time in a structured, visual format, Choiceworks Calendar helps children organize their lives as well as understand sequence and time. 

Key Features
■ Easily create a visual calendar of upcoming events in a few minutes (examples: holidays, when visitors are coming, doctor appointments, vacations, sleepovers, parent returning from a trip or military duty)

■ Image Library preloaded with over 275 images and audio
■ Add your own images using your photo library, camera or use the preloaded image library to record your own audio and edit captions for limitless customizability
■ Create multiple personalized calendars for use with multiple children or in a classroom setting
■ Count Days Until: animated counter for the number of days until an upcoming event (example: How many days until my birthday?)
■ Speaks the daily schedule
■ Built-in visual timer
■ Automatically adds holidays
■ Easily add reoccurring events
■ Notifications and alarms with visual and audio alerts
■ Search and auto-save features
■ Share boards by Email or iTunes File Sharing with other Choiceworks Calendar app users
■ Ability to print month, week or day for offline viewing or save as PDF

Where It's AT Blogiversary: Giveaway #3: Coughdrop License & Brookes Publishing Books

*Update: Congratulations to our randomly selected winner: Laura D.! Be sure to check out each day's giveaways!*

For day 3 it only seemed right to put together, not 1, not 2, but THREE products to giveaway to you, with totals valuing over $300!!! 

Today's giveaway comes courtesy of CoughDrop and Brookes Publishing. Be sure to enter to win a full AAC license by CoughDrop [valued at $200} and TWO hardcopy titles from Brookes Publishing:

 Teaching Communication Skills to Students with Severe Disabilities [valued at $50] and Alternative and Augmentative Communication [valued at $85]. Read below to learn more about each of the products available! 

The first item of today's giveaway is a download of the augmentative communication license by CoughDrop. 

At CoughDrop they believe that every voice should be heard. Disabilities like autism, cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, Angelman syndrome and Rett syndrome make it harder for individuals to communicate on their own. Many people use Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) tools in order to help make their voices heard.

CoughDrop works to help bring out the voices of those with complex communication needs through powerful open-source technology that actually makes things easier and supports everyone in helping the individual succeed.

The following video provides an overview of the powerful tool created by CoughDrop.

The final two items of today's giveaway are brought to you by 

Brookes Publishing. 

The mission at Brookes Publlishing is simple: All people—regardless of ability or background—deserve to achieve their goals and lead fulfilling, self-directed lives. Partnering with top experts, the publishing company delivers relevant, high-quality, research-backed content in optimal form.

Brookes Publishing provides the latest printed and e-books, and book series on critical topics spanning from Early Childhood to K-12 to Higher Education to Community Supports.

The first book is included in today's giveaway is...

Teaching Communication Skills to Students with Severe Disabilities by June E. Downing, Amy Hanreddy & 

Kathryn D. Peckham-Hardin

Synopsis: How can educators and therapists support effective communication for students with severe and multiple disabilities? Today's best research and strategies are in the NEW third edition of this trusted textbook and teaching guide. Current and future education professionals will get up-to-date information and practical guidance on the entire process of supporting communication for students of all ages, from assessing their communication skills to involving peers and adults in intervention. An important textbook and professional reference, this comprehensive volume will help educators, paraprofessionals, SLPs, and other school staff skillfully support every student's right to communicate.



The second book included in today's giveaway is...

Augmentative & Alternative Communication: Supporting Children & Adults with Complex Communication Needs 

by David R. Beukelman and Pat Mirenda

Synopsis: As AAC use continues to flourish and new technology revolutionizes the field, tomorrow's service providers need current, authoritative information on AAC for children and adults with communication disorders. That's why David Beukelman and Pat Mirenda have revised and updated the bestselling Augmentative and Alternative Communication—the trusted, widely adopted graduate-level text on communication disorders and AAC. The foundational textbook for SLPs, OTs, PTs, teachers, and other professionals in clinical and educational settings, this fourth edition is a definitive introduction to AAC processes, interventions, and technologies that help people best meet their daily communication needs. Future professionals will prepare for their work in the field with critical new information on

• advancing literacy skills (new chapter by Janice Light and David McNaughton)
• conducting effective, culturally appropriate assessment to determine AAC needs
• choosing AAC interventions appropriate for age and ability
• selecting AAC vocabulary tailored to individual needs
• using new consumer technologies as easy, affordable, and non-stigmatizing communication devices
• understanding types of symbols and how individuals use them
• promoting social competence
• supporting language learning and development
• providing effective support to beginning communicators
• planning an inclusive education for students with complex communication needs

Readers will get a thorough overview of communication and AAC issues for people with specific developmental disabilities (including cerebral palsy, intellectual disability, and autism) and acquired disabilities (such as aphasia, traumatic brain injury, and degenerative cognitive and linguistic disorders). And with helpful photos, figures, and photocopiable forms, readers will be ready to collect and use important information on assessment, individual communication needs, classroom supports, and more.

An essential core text for tomorrow's professionals—and a key reference for inservice practitioners—this new fourth edition expertly prepares readers to support the communicative competence of children and adults with a wide range of complex needs.

Motivational Monday

AAC Bootcamp Infographic

Motivational Monday

Autism Acceptance Month - Deep Discounts with Assistiveware

To celebrate Autism Acceptance Month AssistiveWare will be offering a 50% discount on 4 of their popular AAC apps: Proloquo2Go®, Proloquo4Text, Pictello and Keeble. Gateway to Language & Learning©, the core word vocabulary available through an in-app purchase in Proloquo2Go, will also be at half price.

The discount, available worldwide on the App Store, will be in effect from April 2nd until and including April 4th.

If you buy more, you save more

The discount also applies to Apple’s Volume Purchase Program for Education. When your school or educational organization purchases 20 copies or more, you get an additional 50% off!

Spread the word

Do you know people who could benefit from these apps? Make sure you share the news about this limited-time discount!

If you have any questions about the discount please contact the AssistiveWare support team at support@assistiveware.com

* Please note: The discount percentage is based on the US App Store. Exact prices vary from country to country. Bundles will not be discounted during this promotion.

An Accessible Life: A Short Film by NCATP

"Assistive technology users and their life experiences are represented in the contributions of the NC Assistive Technology Program consumers depicted in this film. This work focuses not only on their challenges, but highlights their success and the role that assistive technology has played in helping them achieve their goals. Additionally, you will see contributions from the NCATP assistive technologists and family members. These people have worked with and supported these users becoming their allies as they embarked on a new way to attend school, interact with others, participate in meaningful work, express their spirit, share their knowledge and enjoy the narrative of struggle and victory that their lives have become." -NCATP website

I hope you enjoy watching and are as inspired by this as I was. 

Source: An Accessible Life from NC Assistive Technology Program on Vimeo.

13 Ways to Celebrate AAC Awareness Month

October is AAC Awareness Month, and what better way to kick it off then with this amazing resource created by the  PrAACtical AAC blog. Click here to access the original article! 

1. Participate on the #USSAAC Twitterchat at 7:00 pm EDT (UTC−04:00). New to Twitterchats? You can learn more here. The wonderful Chris Bugaj will be moderating.
2. Subscribe to a blog with an AAC content, such as Uncommon Sense, Jane Farrall Consulting, AAC Girls, or Superpower Speech
3. Follow a new AAC topical Pinterest board from Lauren Enders and others: AAC and AT, AT/AAC/Adapt/Modify/Accessibility/Accommodations, AT for Communication, SLP AAC, & AugComm, AAC by Constantly Speaking,Communication-AAC
4. Print, hang, or give someone an AAC awareness image, 10 Commandments of AAC Devices, or 5 Tips for Communicating with Nonverbal Student
5. Register for a free AAC professional development webinar from Ablenet University
6. Print out an AAC Poster, like Lauren Enders’ AAC Boot Camp-Getting AAC Users to Communicate or Kate Ahern’s The Periodic Table of AAC,
7. Explore an AAC app or SGD that is new to you
8. Print out song visual supports
9. Read a Tar Heel Reader Book with an AAC learner
10. Use Aided Language Input while talking to AAC learners (for 10 minutes…. or more)
11. Learn more about AAC supports for challenging behavior
12. Consider providing an AAC training (browse Tabi Jones-Wohleber’s PPT material for inspiration)
13. Join the 8th annual AAC Chat and Read-a-Thon October 14-15

Source: Praactical AAC