Assistive Technology

Contact Watt

The Wayne Assistive Technology Team (WATT) is available to provide consultations and Assistive Technology equipment loans to students across Wayne County who have a moderate to severe disability.  Additionally, WATT is happy to help support Wayne County school teams in building capacity and growing their overall knowledge around Assistive Technology (AT) and Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC).

First Time Contacting WATT? Or your first time using the "new" platform? Create an Account

In order to submit a request, you must first make a RESA service desk account (powered by JIRA). This is FREE and needs to be done only ONCE using your school email address. After you have an account, you will be able to view all of your requests, make additional comments to the WATT team there and receive quick updates about the status of your request. 

Create Your Account Here

Choose A Request Type

Consultation: Use this link to request a meeting with an AT consultant to chat about your student and their needs to begin brainstorming possible AT solutions.

Lending Library: If you know the AT tool you want to try with your student, use this link!

Other: Use this link for any other request you have of WATT.  Do you want a specific PD, about AT, in your building/district? Are you hoping to set up a group make and take? Do you need posters?

Make and Take appointments can be made using our online scheduler.  For large groups looking to schedule half/full day sessions, please contact us directly at wattsupport@resa.net or 734.334.1701.

• SETT- Student, Environment, Tasks, Tools Form used by WATT for consult and consideration
• How to fill out the SETT
• WATI Forms- Wisconsin Assistive Technology Initiative
• QIAT Matrices/Indicators
• Sample Evaluation Forms form WATI
•  AEM Navigator from CAST- The AEM Navigator is a process facilitator that guides the work of a collaborative team as they work through an individual student’s need for specialized formats of printed instructional materials. It is not a screening or diagnostic tool. The Navigator consists of a series of guiding questions to assist teams with decision-making about need, selection, acquisition, and use of accessible printed materials. Learning supports for completing each decision-making step are available throughout.
• Sample data Collection from the QIAT Resource Bank
• Don Johnston -Par (can download Paper version for free)-With reading, some students decode well enough to understand text, others understand when listening to content read aloud. uPar (Par) gives you the data that shows the way each student learns best-and the specific level of text that can be understood by each student when listening (with a reading accommodation) Compared to independent reading
• SIFTS- The SIFTS is a tool to assist school teams in matching a student’s needs with assistive technology (AT) features.

• WATT Guidelines
  • WATT Guidelines - September 2021
  • A Guide for AT Assessment
  • A Guide for Writing AT into an IEP
• Region IV Guidelines
• Michigan Guidelines

• QIAT- Quality Indicators for Assistive Technology- Listserve
• OCALI-Ohio Center for Autism and Low Incidence-The Ohio Department of Education Office for Exceptional Children provides funding to OCALI to build state- and system-wide capacity to improve outcomes for children with disabilities, including individuals with autism and low-incidence disabilities, through leadership, training and professional development, technical assistance, collaboration and technology.
• WATI-Wisconsin Assistive Technology Initiative
• Region IV Assistive Technology Consortium Webpage
• Alt+Shift- Collaborates with districts and buildings to create and sustain accessible educational environments that have a direct and positive impact on every student.

With a focus on collaboration and impact, Alt+Shift offers professional learning, including training, technical assistance, and co-constructed implementation planning, that strives to shift adult mindsets and provide alternative options to improve outcomes for every student.

• ATIA- Assistive Technology Industry Association- The mission is to serve as the collective voice of the assistive technology industry so that the best products and services are delivered to people with disabilities.
• CTG-Closing the Gap- Continues to lead the way for special educators, rehabilitation professionals and consumers. They are internationally renowned and respected as the leader in assistive technology news, resources and professional development opportunities.
• HIAT- High Incidence Accessible Technologies- HIAT is a collaborative team from Montgomery County Public Schools (Maryland) that applies the principles of universal design for learning to support school teams to meet the needs of all students. Our mission is to provide training and consultation to build the capacity of classroom environments to incorporate technology options for all students.

• Free

  • Tar Heel Reader- A collection of free, easy-to-read, and accessible books on a wide range of topics. Each book can be speech enabled and accessed using multiple interfaces, including touch screens, the IntelliKeys with custom overlays, and 1 to 3 switches.  You can also create your own books.

  • Shared Reader from Tar Heel Reader -A new shared reading interface that supports adults in engaging students more actively and in constructing meaning from texts

  • Bookshare-An accessible library with over 815,000 titles. This free service is available to students with learning and print disabilities. Tips for Educators.

  • Learning Ally-provides digital audiobook (human voice) library for people who cannot effectively read standard print because of dyslexia, visual or motor impairment.

  • Newsela-Access thousands of leveled reading materials to support instruction and drive literacy skills across all core curriculum areas.

  • Rewordify-A free online tool that allows readers to instantly see an easier version of text for fast understanding.

  • SMMRY- A free online resource that lets users paste an article, text, or essay in a box and have it summarized.

  • Tween Tribune-A free online educational service for K-12 teachers and students. Current events, history, science, and culture is taught by way of articles (Multiple Lexile levels), videos, and pictures.

  • GCF Global- Accessibility Features on All technology platforms

  • Assistive Technology and Accessible Educational Materials Center (OCALI) - These links provide information on AT tools for team as they match features to specific devices that can be trialed. Resources for Assessment.

  • News 2 You Knowledge Base to learn more about News 2 You, Unique Learning System (ULS), and Symbolstix Prime. 

• Paid

  • Don Johnston- merge the best parts of technology with our experience and human learning expertise to build tools that transform the lives of people across all learning styles and abilities.

  • Texthelp-Unlocking potential through innovative technology.  Creating smart, inclusive technology that helps people read, write, express their thoughts and share information more accurately & fluently – across all stages of life

  • Link to new 21 Things for Teachers (coming Soon)

• What is AAC and Core Vocabulary? This is a 40 minute training by Laura Begley from WATT, reviewing AAC and Core Vocabulary. This is an introductory training designed for anyone who is looking to gain some base knowledge on this topic.

• The America Speech-Language Hearing Association (ASHA) is the national professional credentialing association for Audiologists and Speech-Language Pathologists (SLPs). Their website provides many evidence based resources for SLPs including information about Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC). Here is the link to their website that provides general information about AAC.
  • https://www.asha.org/public/speech/disorders/AAC/
• The Communication Bill of Rights, from the National Joint Committee for the Communication Needs of Persons with Severe Disabilities, is a document outlining basic human communication rights. This version of the Communication Bill of Rights, is the version that has been shared by the American Speech-Language Hearing Association (ASHA). 
  • https://www.asha.org/njc/communication-bill-of-rights/
• PrAACtical AAC supports a blog community of professionals and families who are determined to improve the communication and literacy abilities of people with significant communication difficulties. Many wonderful resources are shared here. It was founded in 2011 by two SLP professors, Carole Zangari and the late Robin Parker, around a shared passion for AAC.
  • https://praacticalaac.org/
• Project-Core is a federally funded grant project with 2 main goals. The first goal is to empower teachers and educational professionals to deliver access to a universal core vocabulary and communication instructing throughout the school day. The second goal is to improve the academic achievement of students with cognitive disabilities through improvements with their communication and literacy skills. This website provides wonderful resources for core vocabulary implementation as well as trainings around AAC and core vocabulary in the form of short modules. 
  • http://www.project-core.com/
• AAC Institute, established in 2000, is a resource for all who are interested in enhancing the communication of people who rely on AAC. AAC Institute promotes the goal of AAC, the AAC Rules of Commitment, and evidence-based AAC clinical practice. This mission is accomplished through service delivery, research, activity organization, information dissemination, and education.
  • https://aacinstitute.org/
• ISAAC – the International Society for Augmentative and Alternative Communication – is a membership organization working to improve the lives of children and adults with complex communication needs. ISAAC’s goal is to create worldwide awareness about how AAC can support individuals without speech
  • https://www.isaac-online.org/english/home/
• The Communication Matrix is a free assessment for individuals in the beginning stages of communication. It assesses a person’s expressive language skills, looking at their use of behaviors, facial expressions and simple sounds used to communicate for different purposes. 
  • https://communicationmatrix.org/

• CAST-Center for Applied Special Technology- CAST is a nonprofit education research and development organization that created the Universal Design for learning framework, now used the world over to make learning more inclusive.
• UDL-IRN-The Universal Design for Learning Implementation and Research Network (UDL-IRN) is a grassroots organization that supports the scaled implementation and research related to Universal Design for Learning.

• Boardmaker-provides free recorded web training sessions to help you get up and running quickly to become a Boardmaker expert in no time at all!
• Bookshare- take a look at "Learn it Now" video tutorials
• Don Johnston provides How-To Videos, webinars, and Printable PDFs made to support Snap & Read, Co: Writer, uPAR, Quizbot, Readtopia- First Author, Start-to-Finish, and Word Bank.
• Humanware - video tutorials for BrailleNote products, Enabling Technologies Embossers, Mountbatten, Prodigi, SmartView, Victor Reader, and other assistive technology for people who are blind or have low vision.
• Inclusive Technology- provides FREE Online Professional Development sessions on various AT tools.
• Tobii Dynavox -provides live and recorded webinars and a variety of on-demand trainings for multi-access devices, eye gaze devices, Windows software, and iPad apps.  Learn more about Snap + Core, Communicator 5, Sono Flex, Look to Learn, and more.
• OCALI Assistive Technology Training Modules
• Ablenet Webinars- on all Ablenet Products

Built in Accessibility on Operating Systems or Browsers

• iOS Accessibility
• MAC
• Android Accessibility
• Windows Accessibility
• Chrome Accessibility Features and Products
• Google: Guardian's Guide to Tools for Children with Disabilities During Distance Learning

Video Conferencing Accessibility

• Zoom
• WebEx
• Google Meet
• Microsoft Teams