Books for All: The Scottish Accessible Curriculum Resources Database.

The report Books for All: Accessible curriculum materials for pupils with additional support needs (2007) pointed to the dearth of curriculum materials that are accessible to pupils with additional support needs. We will outline some of the steps the CALL Centre has been taking to address key challenges identified in the report, for example on copyright; and on the availability of a high quality Scottish voice to facilitate text-to-speech access on school PCs.

The presentation will describe in more detail pilot work by the CALL Centre, in partnership with LTS, Glow and Scran, to create an online resource bank or database of learning materials, accessible to pupils with additional support needs. Pupils who have difficulty turning pages or holding books, who benefit from text-to-speech support, who require enlarged or modified print, or other more specialised formats will all benefit from being able to access materials in a format that suits them.

Teachers in Scotland will be able to access the database either through Glow or through Scran. The pilot project has produced a small set of downloadable exemplar books and resources in accessible formats. The resources include a variety of copyright and copyright-free materials, ranging across the curriculum. Several different digital formats are available including, for example, PDF, DOC, XML, Clicker, Daisy, and MP3, also intermediate digital files suitable for creating printed resources in other formats.

The Scottish Books for All Database will support pupils with a range of print disabilities to get the materials they need in a format (print, digital, audio or other) they need. Having access to materials in an accessible format will enhance young people's education, aspirations and attainment.

For additional information refer to:

http://www.booksforall.org.uk/

http://www.callcentrescotland.org.uk

http://www.adapteddigitalexams.org.uk/

Dr. Stuart Aitken
Stuart has been involved in a number of Research projects including investigations into optimum font characteristics for low vision pupils; approaches to speech recognition; listening to the views of children with communication support needs; prevalence of literacy support needs in Scotland.

He has written or co-authored several books and articles including Vision for Doing (1992); Teaching Children who are Deafblind (2000); the Listening to Children series (2002 & 2004); and co-authored the report Books for All: Accessible curriculum materials for pupils with additional support (2007).

Stuart is also Senior Consultant with Sense Scotland, a service providing organisation for children and adults with complex support needs because of deafblindness or sensory impairment, learning disability or physical disability. Sense Scotland is a leader in the field of communication and innovative support services for people who are marginalised because of challenging behaviour, health care issues and the complexity of their support needs.

Paul Nisbet
Paul has been working in the fields of assistive technology and alternative and augmentative communication since 1983, when the Communication Aids for language and Learning (CALL) Centre was founded, as one of the very first pioneering projects to explore the potential of these new 'microcomputers' as aids for education and daily living for people with disabilities.

Paul became Joint Co-ordinator, with Sally Millar, of the CALL Centre in 1991. The CALL Centre provides services and undertakes research and development into the use of ICT for and by children with special educational needs. As the Scottish National Centre of Excellence in the field, CALL is part funded by the Scottish Government and provides advice in terms of policy and practice to officials. In addition to his other responsibilities, Paul undertakes assessment and support to children and staff in schools; tutors on CALL's programme of courses; and devises and carries out research and development projects.

Paul is author of several books dealing with ICT and SEN: Testing with Special Technology, Special Access Technology, Supportive Writing Technology, Introducing Speech Recognition to Schools; Books for All.

He is one of the inventors and designers of the award-winning CALL Centre Smart Wheelchair and continues to develop hardware and software for the chairs, which are now sold under licence by Smile Rehab Ltd.

He has developed training resources for introducing speech recognition to pupils with additional support needs; instigated and led a project to develop and trial digital exam papers for pupils sitting Scottish Qualifications Authority Exams; has recently completed the Books For All project funded by the Scottish Government; and is currently working with CereProc, a spin-off company of the University of Edinburgh, to licence and distribute a high quality Scottish accent computer voice for pupils in Scotland to use to access digital exam papers, textbooks, exercises and other curriculum materials.