This site is an official ODERSA site. Here is how to find out

The official domain

The address of this site ends inodersa.org. Every service of the association lives on a subdomain of odersa.org and nowhere else. If the address in your browser bar does not end in odersa.org, this site is not ours.

Free, and no account

Everything is open straight away. No registration, no account, no password, no subscription, no advertising. Nothing is reserved for those who pay, since nothing is paid for.

No data collected

This site does not follow you: no tracker, no tracking cookie, no measurement tool built into these pages, and nothing measured on your device. Our host counts requests in aggregate, as any server that answers does: a total, never a profile. You do not have to take our word for it: open your browser’s developer tools, go to the Network tab, and reload the page. You will see the full list of what the site asks for. Everything comes from odersa.org, nothing goes anywhere else.

Freely licensed content

The content is published under the CC BY 4.0 licence. You may copy it, translate it, print it and redistribute it, for your lessons as for your family, on the single condition that you credit ODERSA.

Display settings

These settings need JavaScript. Without it, the page stays readable as it is: the text follows the size chosen in your browser.

Text size
Contrast
Spacing
Links
Theme
Animations

At school

The words of the classroom: the people, the objects, what happens there, and ready-made phrases for asking without searching for words.

Information

This board is an ordinary page: it displays, reads and prints without JavaScript. When JavaScript is working, touching a cell adds the word to the sentence and the voice on your device speaks it. Nothing you compose leaves this device.

Board settings
Cells per row
Cell size
Speaking rate
Switch or keyboard scanning
Scanning speed
Spoken scanning announcement

Scanning is started with the space bar or the Enter key, and so with any switch that sends either of them. One press starts the sequence, the next press selects: in “cell by cell” it takes the current cell, in “row then cell” it takes the row first, then the cell within that row. A row taken by mistake exits on its own: after one full pass with no press, the sequence returns to the rows.

The sequence contains the cells of the board, then the three commands of the sentence bar, as a last row: “Speak the sentence”, “Delete the last word” and “Clear all”. A sentence can therefore be built, corrected and spoken with the switch alone. The cursor can also announce itself aloud, cell by cell, through the setting above: this is what makes scanning usable without seeing the screen. One gesture still calls for something other than the switch: stopping scanning, with the Escape key or with the “Off” button.

yes no help stop me I want more finished it hurts drink eat toilet female teacher male teacher classmate head teacher book exercise book pencil eraser scissors computer tablet bag chair table read write draw count sing play go out break time dining hall bus I didn’t understand please say it again can I go out it’s my turn it’s too loud it’s too fast I’m ready I’ve finished my work
Print a board Every board in the tool Back to the catalogue

Symbols used by this board:

  • Material Design Icons / Pictogrammers · Apache 2.0 · Icones Material Design Icons par Pictogrammers (https://pictogrammers.com/) - sous licence Apache 2.0 (https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0) - conserver une copie de la licence
  • Twemoji 16.0.1 · CC BY 4.0 · Pictogrammes Twemoji (c) 2014-2021 Twitter, Inc. et contributeurs ; (c) 2022-present Jason Sofonia & Justine De Caires - sous licence CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) - indiquer toute modification

Every set is checked against its licence file before any use. The full list is on The symbols and in licences.json.

Using this board

The top row is the same on every Words Within Reach board: its words always occupy the same place, in the same order. A hand that has learnt where yes is finds it in the same place everywhere, without having to look for it.

This page prints as it is: the sentence bar, the settings, the menu, the breadcrumb and the buttons disappear. What remains is the title, the grid, the labels, the licence of the symbols and the caution note: the last two must follow the board wherever it goes. A paper board never runs out of battery, and that is the reason it exists here.

To build your own board from this one, open My boards.

Information

This board is a communication aid. Words Within Reach is not a medical device, not medical advice, and not a diagnostic tool. The words serve to name a part of the body, a sensation or a need: never to make a diagnosis or to describe a treatment. This service measures no one and assesses no one, and nothing you compose leaves this device.