C-PEN DIGITAL HIGHLIGHTER

C-Pen Digital Highlighter

Say goodbye to taking textbook notes the traditional way with your yellow highlighters. Introducing the C-Pen Digital Highlighter that is changing the way we read articles for essays, study and read textbooks for tests and exams. If you are like me you spent countless hours highlighting the key points in your text books or journal articles for essays and then spent more time re-writing/typing your notes. You probably also use different colors for different things you need to study, maybe yellow for definitions, green for important people and so on. While some may argue that having to re-write/type notes is a form of studying, I found this time consuming and exhausting.

With the C-Pen, and individual can highlight the material they need and have it copied directly into their word processor. I feel this is especially beneficial when writing any types of research paper as it will save a person time in having to find that ‘great’ article you have with that ‘awesome’ quote but cannot find in through your stack of thirty articles. Now with the C-pen and your key points written in your word processor you can easily navigate you way to finding that all important quote.

Take a look at this great video on the C-Pen for an example of how it works. 





The Benefits of Trial Software

In an effort to gain a basic understanding of the various assistive software available on the market today and to assist me in writing my reviews I have relied on trial software. Many of these 30 day trials, in my opinion, offer the user just enough time to adequately gain a better understanding of the software and assist the user in determining if a specific software is worth purchasing once the trial is expired.

For educators who may have a student with a disability in their classroom I think trial software can be a very effective way of determining what software is going to be most beneficial. I understand that this may mean putting the software on ones own personal device but I feel this minor inconvenience can go a long way. Parents can also trial software on their home computers allowing their child to use the software to do their homework. With trial software the educator and parents can keep track of the students progress, for example taking not of how the student performed the work before the assistive software was introduces, how they are performing in the middle of the trial and then at the end of the trial. These results can be shared then with parents and with member of you special education team as evidence of if the software was beneficial. I feel in many cases having already has a student trial software gives educators a parents a base for having the software purchased for the students continued use. 

Just in the couple of software trials that I have tried I have gained a better understanding of how each software works.  Now when people ask me about different assistive software I can give them my review.


PERSONAL REVIEW OF ZOOMTEXT

Recently I have been playing around with Zoomtext to familiarize myself with this software that is used by many people with visual impairments. Before starting to try the software out my sense was that I would not find the software very user friendly, this coming from others I had spoken to about the software. I  was pleased when I started to use the software to discover that many options it has for users and began thinking that this software could be beneficial for not just people with visual impairments but for others as well which I will explain as I continue describing the software and it many uses.

For magnification, zoomtext  can begin at 1X and can go as high a 36X allowing each user to modify the text to their comfort level. The user can also change the view to allow them to see the full normal view which most of us are used to to different views according to the level of vision. For example overlay view opens a separate window that is magnified wherever the cursor is  as in the line view the document is used line by line. I felt this feature would be beneficial for people who may have difficulty with visual tracking that is not part of a visual impairment. I have Cerebral Palsy and sometimes have visual tracking difficulties where I may be reading a document and may skip a line or two as my eyes did not find the right spot, having a feature that would allow me to go line by line would have kept me on track and not constantly loosing my space.

When looking at color schemes on the computer,  the traditional black on white is not ideal for people with visual impairments. Zoomtext allows the user to change the color scheme to be something that is easier on their eyes, one popular color scheme is a black background with yellow print but Zoomtext offers many options

When it comes to cursors, I don't know about you but I can never find my cursor. I end up having to start typing to see where it is and then go back and delete once I've found it. With Zoomtext there is a feature that places a circle or a square around your cursor, never to loose it again. 

As I said before even though zoomtext is a software program for people with visual impairments I see many features that can be used by others. 

Check out tzoomtext and download a free trial and try out all that this program offers.