Visual+Processing+Disorder+and+Blogging

How Assistive Technology can help those with VPD to blog or read blog posts.
Visual-Spatial Processing Disorder (VPD) is hard to define by a set of characteristics. Many have problems with knowing their right and left, doing math problems, writing without grammatical errors and or neatly, typing, drawing, reading, visual stimulation, confusing infographics, and navigating without GPS to familiar or unfamiliar locations. Many learning disabilities such as Autism, Dyslexia, or Non-Verbal Learning Disability can be Co-Morbid Disorders. VPD can cause Textual Visual Aliasing Syndrome or "visual noise created by textual patterns"( Bowan Simply Brainy) which can make reading very taxing. In this article, I will highlight how we can make blogging, and the Internet, in general, more accessible to children with VPD.

Blogging or reading a blog, can be inaccessible to someone who struggles with visual perception. Text can be crowded blinking or move, and too many pictures can be overwhelming. Many browsers have AdBlock add-ons and or read only features which limit distractions from ads and other unrelated text. Some even remove pictures if necessary making the page easier to read. I discovered this on my new laptop and was surprised at how much less I got distracted when reading articles or blogs. Many times those who suffer from VPD have trouble reading on bright screens, which can cause problems with comprehension or understanding. Software such as F.lux, inverting colors on screen, or high contrast settings on Windows or Mac computers can minimize visual distraction by changing the colors or brightness of screen.

Audacity is free for both Mac and PC. it allows a person to record and edit audio on a laptop with microphone capabilities. A student can record their blog post, and an aide can type it for them. The resulting audio can be saved as an MP3 and uploaded on many blogging sites. If not it can be uploaded to SoundCloud and embedded into the post. Another Software called Dragon Naturally Speaking(140-300$) allows text to speech capabilities for most blogging platforms and has an Add-on download for Word. This allows a student to speak and see it appear as text on any word processing platform. In the past I used Dragon Naturally Speaking to help me when writing essays. A tool that might be easier for Elementary through High school might be Voki. Voki is another online tool that can make blogs more accessible and is easier to use then audacity. Voki allows you to embed avatars onto your blog that can speak slowly when clicked or hovered over making blogging Software such as Balabolka(Free) can read any typed text out loud. I use it to read PDF text or blog posts aloud which I copy and paste directly into Balabolka. This allows me to control the speed, gender, and accent of the text being read. One final way of providing accessibility is using [|Bitly]or hyperlinking. Hyperlinking is when you embed the link into a word so that when clicked the word take the user to the appropriate web page. Hyperlinking can reduce the stress of typing out the website URL. Bitly is a site that shortens URLs. When providing links on blog posts, this can clean up longer URLs.

In closing, blogging might be difficult for a student with VPD. All of these accommodations have helped me when writing, or reading blog posts. I hope they will aid in making the world more accessible for anyone struggling with VPD or anyone who wants to make blogging more interactive and inclusive to various learning styles.

__**Sources and Download Links**__
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 * https://newtonassistivetech.wikispaces.com/**


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 * Audacity []**


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[|understood.org/VPD]