Many students with cognitive and/or motor difficulties are unable to use the mouse and keyboard.  There are options available that can accommodate these students allowing them access to the computer.  One access method is Intellikeys, which is an alternative keyboard.  By combining Intellikeys with Overlay Maker and Microsoft PowerPoint, the computer becomes more accessible.  Here are the steps.

1.      Design an activity using PowerPoint.  To see an example of an activity targeting Social Studies SOL 1.4, visit our website at http://www.ttac.odu.edu and select Info Topics, Assistive Technology Tips and Tricks, Geography SOL 1.4.

2.      Decide what the student needs to access the program using Intellikeys.  (one button, two or many)

3.      Open Overlay Maker and construct the buttons/cells that you will need.  You are able to paste pictures into the cells or type words.

a.  Each cell can be assigned a corresponding slide in PowerPoint.  For example, if one of your button/cells has a picture or word “Virginia”, the cell can be assigned to slide 9 which will depict a map of Virginia.  You can also add sound to the slide.

b.  To assign slide #9 to the button, double click on the picture/word.

c.  In the dialog box, click on “show special”.

d.  On the tab, click on “keyboard keys”

e.  Scroll down and double click on “num pad…”

f.  type the number of the slide

g.  Scroll and select Enter 

4.      Save the overlay, print, send.

5.      Open the PowerPoint activity and View SlideShow.

6.      When you select a button/cell on the overlay, the corresponding slide will be viewed.