Special Education

34 Great Jobs for People with Disabilities

Use this list as a starting point. And keep in mind that some of the ideas in each disability category may also work for people who fall under one or more of the other categories.

100+ Great Jobs for People with Disabilities to Get You Out and Earning

From an online career builder site. You can start with this page, and then go on to resume, cover letter, and other job-related information.

Center for Parent Information and Resources

Your central “Hub” of information and products created for the network of Parent Centers serving families of children with disabilities.

Council for Exceptional Children

The Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) is the largest international professional organization dedicated to improving educational outcomes for individuals with exceptionalities, students with disabilities, and/or the gifted.

Disability History Museum

The Disability History Museum hosts a Library of virtual artifacts, Education curricula, and Museum exhibits. These programs are designed to foster research and study about the historical experiences of people with disabilities and their communities.

Disability Resoures

Subject-organized set of links about disabilities, disability rights, support groups, government agencies, and other resources.

Medline Plus: Child Behavior Disorders

Information and links about a wide range of behavioral disorders in children. From the National Library of Medicine.

Resume and Employment Guide for People With Disabilities

According to the Social Security Administration, there are over 8 million disabled workers in the United States. … Below, we’ll go over best practices for resume writing, laws that protect you from discrimination, and several other topics that you should know about as a disabled worker.

Wheelmap

Wheelmap is a map for finding wheelchair accessible places. The map works similar to Wikipedia: Anyone can contribute and mark public places around the world according to their wheelchair accessibility.

Who Me? Self-Esteem for People with Disabilities

Discussses general principles of self-esteem with a focus on how they apply to persons with disabilities.

5 Tech Resources for the Blind or Visually Impaired

Discusses apps with GPS, sighted volunteer apps, seeing assistive technology, alt text, and screen readers. (May 2019)

American Foundation for the Blind

The mission of the American Foundation for the Blind is to create a world of no limits for people who are blind or visually impaired. We mobilize leaders, advance understanding, and champion impactful policies and practices using research and data.

ConnectCenter

Our mission is to empower people toward greater independence and lifelong success by providing free curated information and resources to assist children, parents, job seekers, and adults who are blind or low vision.

National Federation of the Blind

Facts and support for the blind, including information on assistive technology.

New York State Commission for the Blind

The mission of the New York State Commission for the Blind is to enhance employability, to maximize independence and to assist in the development of the capacities and strengths of people who are legally blind.

New York State Resource Center for the Visually Impaired

From the State Education Department, information describing services available for visually impaired students in New York State.

See also: Languages: ASL

Gallaudet University

For more than 150 years, Gallaudet University has led advances in education of deaf and hard of hearing students and deaf rights worldwide.

National Association of the Deaf

The NAD is the nation’s premier civil rights organization of, by and for deaf and hard of hearing individuals in the United States of America.

National Deaf Education Center

Information, resources, and links to organizations from Gaullaudet University.

National Theatre of the Deaf

Touring the nation and the world for over 45 years, the acting company is comprised of deaf and hearing actors. Each performance unfolds simultaneously in two languages; one for the eye, American Sign Language, and one for the ear, the Spoken Word.

VeryWell: An Introduction to American Deaf Culture

Deaf culture is used to describe the unique characteristics found among the population of deaf and hard of hearing people. It’s reflected in art, literature, social environments, and much more.

College Resources for Students with Disabilities

With the advances of adaptive technologies and trend toward progressive legislation, prospective college students with disabilities now have countless resources available to make their transition to postsecondary education less stressful. More resources from this site can be found by scrolling down to the “Students with Disabilities” section on the College Resources Center page.

Higher Education for Students with Disabilities

We have put this guide together to help students with disabilities and their parents better understand their rights and responsibilities in regard to a postsecondary education. You will also find useful tips and information for locating the college or university program that best suits your needs.

Internet Special Education Resources

ISER is a directory of special-education related professionals, organizations, and schools. We help parents find local special education professionals for learning disabilities and attention deficit disorder assessment, therapy, advocacy, critical teen issues, and other special needs.

New York State Education Department: Special Education

Information about Special Education in New York State, from regulations to links to resources.

NSTA: Disabilities

This website provides strategies and resources for making science accessible for all students, including those with disabilities. By clicking on one of the links below, you can find general information, teaching strategies, and resources … Although focused on science education, many of these techniques would be useful in any classroom.

Special Education Guide

SpecialEducationGuide.com is the go-to online resource for parents and educators who want to master the terminology, procedures and best practices in special education.

Thought.co: Special Education

Use these special education resources to help you become a better teacher and advocate for students with special needs. Find information on special education careers, social skills, testing, and more. From ThoughtCo

Tips for Parents of Children With Disabilities Who Want Them To Succeed in School

While today on average only 1-in-3 working age adults with a disability have a job, studies show that 70% of young people with disabilities can get jobs and careers. But we have to do our part. Here are some tips I’ve used in the past that may be helpful to you… (2017)

All Kinds of Minds

The All Kinds of Minds’ mission is to help students who struggle with learning measurably improve their success in school and life by providing programs that integrate educational, scientific and clinical expertise.

Great Schools – Learning Disabilities

GreatSchools is committed to helping you understand your child’s learning difficulties, including those that can be diagnosed – learning disabilities, AD/HD, autism and Asperger’s syndrome – and other difficulties without a diagnosis.

LDA: Learning Disabilities Association of America

LDA is the largest non-profit volunteer organization advocating for individuals with learning disabilities. The website has information about this subject for parents, teachers, professionals, and others.

LDOnline.org

Information and resources about learning disabilities for parents, teachers, and kids.

National Center for Learning Disabilities

Provides information, resources, and referral services for children and adults with learning disabilities.

New York State Office for People With Developmental Disabilties

News, resources, and links for New Yorkers with disabilities.

Resources & Support for College Students with Dyslexia, Dysgraphia, or Dyscalculia

While aimed at college students, many of these strategies and links would work for students at the secondary level as well.

International Paralympic Committee

Periodic games held in parallel to the Olympic Games but designed for athletes with a variety of disabilities.

Move United

Move United’s mission is to provide national leadership and opportunities for individuals with disabilities to develop independence, confidence, and fitness through participation in community sports, competition, recreation, high performance sport and educational programs.

Special Olympics

The mission of Special Olympics is to provide year-round sports training and athletic competition in a variety of Olympic-type sports for children and adults with intellectual disabilities….

Special Olympics New York

Special Olympics New York provides inclusive opportunities for people with intellectual disabilities to compete in Olympic-style, coached sports.

Sports Programs for Your Child With Special Needs

Describes and links to organizations for inclusive and special needs focused sports.

See also eBooks and Audio Books

Bookshare online; free for qualifying students

With over a million titles, Bookshare offers free access to individuals who have a qualifying reading or perceptual disability, a visual impairment, or a physical disability that affects their ability to read printed works.

Learn Out Loud online; free

Browse the Net’s largest Catalog of educational free audio & video, podcasts, & audio book downloads.

Learning Ally – Support for Dyslexia and Learning Disabilities online; $$

Available in every grade level and most subjects, RFB&D textbook and literature titles are used nationwide. In addition to the classics, RFB&D’s digital library provides current editions of state adopted texts ensuring students learn from the same versions as their classmates. Requires proof of disability; fees may be waived with proof of hardship or paid by schools or services for the blind.

National Library Service for the Blind and Physcially Handicapped online / free

A free braille and talking book library service for people with temporary or permanent low vision, blindness, or a physical disability that prevents them from reading or holding the printed page.

NY State Library: Talking Book and Braille Library online and offline; free for qualified individuals

The New York State Talking Book and Braille Library (TBBL) is a free library service for eligible residents of upstate New York who are unable to use standard print materials due to a visual, physical or reading disability. Physical materials are sent free by mail; ebooks may also be downloaded.

8 Great Chrome Accessibility Extensions for Students

Using these extensions will enable students to transform their online reading experience … navigate the web using only their keyboard, interact with web pages using both text-to speech and voice dictation, easily type complex mathematical equations and formulas, and many more. (May 2023)

Amdroid Accessibility Overview

You can customize your Android device with accessibility settings and apps.

Chromebook Help: Use the built-in screen reader

This articles explains how to use ChromeVox, the screen reader built into all Chromebooks.

Google Chrome Help: Use Live Caption in Chrome

You can use Live Caption to generate captions automatically for videos, podcasts, games, live streams, video calls, or other audio media from Chrome browser on your computer. Audio and captions are processed locally and stay on the device.

Google: Explore Google’s accessibility features and products

SShort articles describe accessibility features such as text-to-speech, speech to text, captions, and other options.

Google Tools to Support All Learners

Technology can be a powerful tool to assist students when learning, as it provides accessibility and accommodations to support everyone. … In this blog post we will take a look at dozens of Chrome web extensions and apps and other tools and features that can assist students (Sept. 2022)

Google Workspace User Guide to Accessibility

This page lists resources to help you get started with G Suite using assistive technology. We’ve included information for diverse needs and interests, but many of the resources are primarily for blind or low-vision users.

Guardian’s Guide to Tools for Children with Disabilities

This guide discusses various options which can be used with Chromebooks and Google Tools. It is organized by type of disability (vision issues, motor skills, executive function issues or difficulty focusing, hearing issues, dyslexia) and offers a list of add-ons which might be helpful as well. (August 2023)

Turn On Chromebook Accessibiility Features

You can make your Chromebook easier to use by turning on accessibility features that work best for your needs.

Apple: Accessibility

Built-in features designed for you to make something wonderful. There is also a set of short YouTube videos on these features.

The Best Assistive Technology for Dyslexics

Whether you’re grappling with homework or just trying to get things done, these tools will help your tech adapt to you—instead of the other way around. (Wired Magazine, Oct. 2021)

Microsoft: Accessibility features in Microsoft Edge

Describes the various accessiblity features in Edge and how to set them up.

Microsoft: Immersive Reader free

Immersive Reader is a set of free tools to improve the reading experience for users of OneNote, Word, Outlook, Edge, Office Lens, and Microsoft Teams software.

Microsoft: Use live captions to better understand audio

Live captions helps everyone, including people who are deaf or hard-of-hearing, better understand audio by providing automatic transcription. (Windows 11, version 22H2 and later.)

Microsoft: Accessibility Resources

Microsoft’s page about its accessibility features for various issues and products.

Omoguru browser extension; mobile app; free/paid

Omoguru offers a mobile app and a browser extension to make text more readable for those with dyslexia and other reading difficulties.

Rewordify online; free

Rewordify.com helps people read more, understand difficult English faster, and learn words in new ways. … Just paste in a difficult English sentence, paragraph, or more (or enter a web page URL) and click the button. You’ll instantly see an easier version, for fast understanding now.

Tools to Improve the Accessibility of Documents, Slides, Videos, and Websites

We all have different needs and preferences when it comes to consuming the media in our lives. … Here are some tools that you and your students can use to improve the accessibility of media used in your classroom. (Dec. 2019)

See also Audio – Voice Recording

Best speech-to-text apps

Short descriptions highlighting the pros and cons of free, paid and online voice recognition apps and services

Dictanote Chrome; free

Dictanote is a note-taking app that lets you efficiently categorize your ideas, thoughts, research and todos into notes and notebooks. Dictanote has built in MS Word like editor with which you can format your notes and download them as PDF / .docx files

Dictate Text on iPhone

How to Use Speech-to-Text on Android

These articles explain how to use dictation to turn speech to text on your iPhone or Android device.

Google Tools for Speech to Text

Overviews of a built-in tool for Google Docs and Slides, a Chrome extension, and a built-in Chromebook tool. (Jan. 2022)

MacWhisper Mac; iOS; free

Quickly and easily transcribe audio files into text with OpenAI’s state-of-the-art transcription technology Whisper. Available for Macs and iOS devices.

SpeechTexter Chrome; free

SpeechTexter is a free professional multilingual speech-to-text application aimed at assisting you with transcription of any type of documents, books, reports, blog posts, etc by using your voice.

Voice Dictation: Online Speech Recognition Chrome; free

With Dictation, you can use the magic of speech recognition to write emails, narrate essays and long documents in the browser without touching the keyboard….The app internally uses the built-in speech recognition engine of Google Chrome to transform your voice into digital text.

Writeout.AI online; free

Fast and accurate transcription of audio files within seconds.

See also Audio – Voice Recording

Built-in Text to Speech Apps

Most operating systems have built-in text-to-speech tools. Check out Google’s TalkBack for Android and ChromeVox for Chromebooks; Apple’s VoiceOver for iOS devices; and Microsoft’s Narrator for Windows.

5 Best Free Realistic Text-to-Speech Tools

Following is a list of some of the best free text-to-speech tools with a brief description and their respective pros and cons. (March 2023)

9 Free Screen Reader Apps for Android & iOS

A screen reader is an important piece of software for visually impaired or blind people, the screen reader converts text from your phone into audio form, thus allowing people with disabilities to fully use their smartphone. (Aug. 2022)

Best free text-to-speech software

Find the best free text-to-speech software for free and easy text to audio conversion. (Feb. 2024)

How to Convert Audio to Text on Windows, Mac, and the Web

Converting audio files to text is a great method to create subtitles for videos or convert voice notes into searchable, text-based information. Fortunately, there are ample ways to automate the process …

How to Get Siri to Read Text on iOS and macOS

How to Use Google’s Text-to-Speech Feature on Android

These articles describe how to use the text to speech features on your iPhone or Android device.

iSpeech online; free and pay versions

Simply cut and paste the text you wish to convert to speech into our text box and click convert text. Or, upload any supported document, website, blog, etc. and click convert file or the listen button.

NaturalReader Mac, Win; free and $ versions

This company offers a free as well as pay versions of their text to speech software.

Read Aloud: A Text to Speech Voice Reader Chrome; free

Read Aloud is a Chrome and Firefox extension that uses text-to-speech technology to convert webpage text to audio. It works on a variety of websites, including news sites, blogs, fan fiction, publications, textbooks, school and class websites, online universities and course materials.

Speechify Mac, online, mobiles; free and $ versions

Power through docs, articles, PDFs, email — anything you read — by listening with our leading text-to-speech reader.

Word Talk Win; free

A free text-to-speech plugin for Microsoft Word. It will act as a ‘text reader’ and create a spoken sound version of the text in the document and read it back to you as it highlights the words. Works with Word 2007 forward.