AT Tools for Visual Spatial and Motor Control

Students with spatial and motor disabilities find difficulty with their fine and gross motor skills. Additionally, visually impaired students have difficulty with a variety of tasks. Pertinent to math, a very detail oriented academic area, students with disabilities may have trouble writing numbers, lining up digits, and creating visual representations (like shapes or angles) for a variety of reasons. It is difficult for these students to demonstrate their level of achievement or mastery of concepts.  Below are several applications that can help assist students with visual spatial and motor control disabilities:

1) MathPad/ MathPad Plus (Cambium Learning)-  talking math worksheet program that allows students to perform arithmetic computations. Students with fine motor difficulties can demonstrate their skill simply by using the keyboard or clicking the mouse, and students with severe disabilities can use MathPad's scanning feature. Multiple means of representation and expression!

2) Virtual Pencil (VP) Arithmetic/ Algebra (Henter Math)- designed for students who unable to use a pencil correctly.

3) Number Navigator (Oats Project)- simple math processor

4) Microsoft Word- can also be used as a math processor.  Microsoft Equation Editor allows students to make simple or advanced equations in correct mathematical notation.

5) MathType (Design Science)- uses color coding for students in advanced math classes with advanced equations and symbols