How would you feel if you had things to say and a voice to say them with, but could not and did not know why?
My students attend a special education public school.
They are fourteen/fifteen years old and in an advanced class. They are creative, ingenuous, well-behaved and love to use technology. They change the life of everyone who they meet. Who are they you ask? They are students classified with Autism and Selective Mutism, but to me they are children who have voices that are not heard.
My Project
I am requesting an Apple iPod Touch 8GB and case for my students. I plan on downloading Speak2Me, a text-to-speech application from the Apple iTunes store. With this software, my students will be able to communicate with peers and teachers during structured and less structured classroom activities. The software allows you to type in English sentences and have a computer generated voice speak them for you.
During lessons, my students are currently communicating rather laboriously by typing their responses and questions during lessons on a bulky laptop. With the iPod Touch, my students will be able to carry their voice around with them, gain others' attention via a computer generated voice instead of waiting for their communication partner to walk over to the laptop and read it.
The ability to speak can easily be taken for granted.
My students can speak, but for some unknown reason they do not. Maybe it is because they have Autism? Maybe it is because they are anxious? Whatever the reason is we as a society have a responsibility to give such individuals other means by which to communicate. Help me give my students their voice back with an iPod Touch.
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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Ms. Allcot and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.