IEP Technologies :  Expanded Core Curriculum Games for Visually Impaired Students

IEP Objectives

ObjectiveEd.com is our new organization where we are building Expanded Core Curriculum games for blind and low vision students, based on the child’s Individual Educational Plan. 
The student’s advancement in mastering skills in these ECC-based games will be stored in a private secure cloud, accessible to the teachers in a web-based dashboard . 
If you are a O&M , click for more information on trying these types of games as part of maximizing student outcomes, relating to their 
Individual Educational Plan .

Who is the voice?

The magic of the game is completely based on hearing things, and imagining what is going on. The voice that speaks to you during the game can make the difference between a hit and a dud.
Originally, I tested with Apple’s voice-over technology, but that made the game sound robotic. I tried out several other voice emulation systems, but they just sounded flat. This game needs emotion, and that means a real person’s voice.
It just so happens that my daughter (Mariel) is a talented actress, and this was a great opportunity to let her do some voice acting. She had previously narrated the tutorial for our prior app “Wish To List”. She auditioned for the role, and won the part.
Each phrase or sentence in the game required about 5 takes before we got the intonation and feeling just right. Some had to be redone several more times when we got criticism (usually from adults) where the intonation gave off a feeling of superiority or cynicism.

Most of the sound clips in the app came from free download sites.