Browse Assistive Technology

Big Bang Patterns

Est. $30–$80

Big Bang Patterns is a Windows program that fills the screen with more than 60 bright, bold animations, paired with lively music and sound effects. It has three activity modes, one of them for cause and effect and another for simply experiencing the visuals and sound, so you can match it to where a learner is. The sights and sounds can be adjusted to individual preferences. It can be used with a switch, touch screen, keyboard, or mouse, which makes it a fit for learners with complex or sensory needs and for sensory rooms. It is sold as a download for Windows 7 through 11, and the same title is offered separately as an iPad app.

Spinning Light Show

$136.95

The Spinning Light Show is a battery-powered sensory toy that throws spinning, multicolored light designs when someone presses a switch. Because the lights only play when a switch is pressed, it gives a clear, visual way to practice cause and effect and to build visual attention. It runs on 3 AAA batteries and measures about 6½ by 7½ by 4½ inches. The switch is not included, so you'll need to supply one that fits the person's reliable movement. It is not for anyone who is prone to seizures.

CVI Complexity Sequences App

$78.54

The CVI Complexity Sequences App is an iPad-style learning tool built around ten sets of target images, used to build visual learning for children who have cortical visual impairment (CVI), a brain-based form of vision difference. The image sets are arranged in sequences of increasing visual complexity, so the child's viewing can be built up step by step rather than all at once. It's meant to be used with a child, not handed over to run on its own. A teacher of students with visual impairments, a vision specialist, or a therapist who knows the child's CVI profile can choose which sets and steps fit that child, and that choice is what makes the app useful.

Big Bang

Est. $30–$80

Big Bang is Windows software that turns a press, click, or touch into bright on-screen action like fireworks, bubbles, stars, and color changes. It gives learners who are just starting to link an action to a result a lively way to practice cause and effect, visual tracking, and attention. It has five activity sets (Action, Builds, Movement, Colour, and Sounds), and you can choose gradual builds or continuous movement to match the learner's ability. A learner can use a switch, touch screen, mouse, or keyboard, so it suits sensory rooms and settings with learners who have profound and multiple learning disabilities (PMLD). It runs on Windows 7, 8, 10, and 11 only, and it's delivered by email as a download, not as a disc.

Gel Pad Activity Center

$474.95

The Gel Pad Activity Center is a tabletop unit with three soft gel pad switches, and each one sets off a different cause-and-effect response. The green pad runs a fan and plays music, the red pad starts a spinning light and music, and the yellow pad vibrates while glitter swirls inside a dome with music. It gives a child sound, touch, and visual feedback from a single press, which makes it a good fit for teaching cause and effect, building tactile awareness, and encouraging visual attention. It's a complete, self-contained unit that runs on batteries, but the music tracks can vary, so you can't count on a specific tune.

Big Bang Pictures

Est. $30–$80

Big Bang Pictures is a Windows program with 20 animated pictures of familiar objects, drawn in two high-contrast colors. You pick one of three levels of visual complexity and adjust the colors and other settings to fit the learner, so it can be used for cause-and-effect play or just for looking and listening. Sound effects and music go along with the animations, and it can be run with a switch, touch screen, keyboard, or mouse. It was developed with input from specialists in visual impairment and suits learners with complex needs or low vision; an iPad version is sold separately.

Flip-Over Concept App for the Monarch: Lines

This free app for the Monarch builds tactile literacy through games and hands-on exploration of interactive panels. It's aimed at children who are learning to read and make sense of touch-based graphics. It runs on the Monarch, so you need that device to use it, and it's a learning activity rather than a stand-alone product.

Sensory Eye FX 2

Price on request: ask the vendor

Sensory Eye FX 2 is software that teaches and practices eye gaze control through visual, exploratory activities. The activities run across five levels that get harder step by step, building the early skills behind eye gaze use: engaging with the screen, interacting, and focusing. Clinicians can personalize it and record a client's eye movements during an assessment, which helps them see signs of progress over time. It's meant for people of any age who are learning eye gaze access, and it needs eye tracking hardware to work (see below).

Astro Adventure Balls App

Astro Adventure Balls is a free app for iPad and Android tablets that gives children an interactive way to practice and assess visual, auditory, and related skills. It's aimed at young children, and the stored details place it in learning and sensory use for children with low vision or blindness. The app itself costs nothing, but you'll need a compatible tablet. Because it's built to assess as well as build skills, a teacher or vision specialist can help you pick settings and make sense of what you see.

TADPOLE: Interactive Images eBook

TADPOLE: Interactive Images is an eBook of tablet-based visual activities that teachers can use to check and build a child's visual skills. The activities center on everyday play and daily-life scenes, and they cover things like figure-ground discrimination (picking an object out of a busy background), visual attention and memory, eye-hand coordination, object recognition, visual sequencing, and simple cause and effect. It also supports size and shape identification and color and shape matching. It's built for tablets and meant to replace the earlier TADPOLE set, and the iBook is a free download from the App Store.

Flip-Over Concept App for the Monarch: Textures

This free app for the Monarch builds tactile literacy through games and hands-on exploration of interactive textures. It gives children who read by touch a playful way to practice noticing and comparing what they feel. You'll need a Monarch, APH's dedicated tactile device, to run it, so it works as a learning activity on hardware you already have, not a standalone product.