

Show HN: Our startup launched: create visual supports for special education - silverlight
http://symbly.us/

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silverlight
I know this isn't exactly our target demographic, but I'm very excited to
share this with the HN community. My wife and I have been involved in special
education for many years, and I'm constantly appalled at the state of the
software industry in the field. We're trying to change that, and this is our
first attempt. It's a new way to create and share visual supports for use in
special education, such as with children with autism.

I would, of course, appreciate any feedback that you can give about the
website, and if you or anyone you know is involved in special education, have
them give the app a try as well!

Thanks for all the great advice over the years. This entire community is an
inspiration.

EDIT: For those technically inclined, the app itself runs on a combination of
Raphael JS, SVG, Backbone JS, Share JS, and Node.

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johnnyn
I think it looks great. I'm not your target audience either, but my cousin is
a special education teacher and she's very excited about it after I passed it
along to her.

~~~
silverlight
Great! Thanks! Be sure to let her know that we love hearing feedback, good or
bad :-)

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Professa
When adding text on a support, I can't seem to move it after I place it
(Chrome - 19.0.1036.7 dev-m).

When adding a symbol, can you remove the text that it adds with it?

I add a tag but it doesn't seem to stay

(Parent of 5 yr old on Autism Spectrum)

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silverlight
Hmmm...I will have to download that version of Chrome and see what the problem
is. I'm just running release (17.0.963.46).

You can remove the text by highlighting it and tapping the Delete key on your
keyboard, or by right-clicking and choose "Delete". If you click the Gear icon
that's above the Search box when you are in the Image Search dialog, you can
set it to put automatic labels above, below, or not at all.

Are you trying to tag image results in your personal image library? Or tagging
supports doesn't work when your browsing the site outside of the editor?

Thanks for the feedback! And feel free to email help@symbly.us if you would
rather do this via email :-).

~~~
Professa
I added a tag to the support itself but it doesn't seem to stay.

Right click and delete worked perfectly, but it didn't like clicking and then
hitting the delete button.

Overall, I think this pretty awesome and combined with a tablet makes more
sense than paying $2k+ for some of the devices available.

~~~
silverlight
That's our thinking as well. And it becomes even better if we can really get a
community going, sharing supports and advice. Our goal is to really change
special education for the better. Thanks for the support!

