Completing reading assignments, writing papers, and taking exams are challenges faced by all Penn State students as they tackle their course work. Students with disabilities such as low vision, blindness, limited mobility, or dyslexia can find these tasks even more of a challenge. To help afford all students an equal chance to succeed, Classroom and Lab Computing (CLC), part of Information Technology Services (ITS), is committed to providing assistive technology for use by students at University Park and the campus colleges. This article will focus on the specialized computing lab in 23 West Pattee Library at University Park, available to students with disabilities.
CLC equips the Pattee lab with a variety of assistive hardware and software. The Assistive Technology Committee, composed of representatives from CLC, the Office for Disability Services, Library Services for Persons with Disabilities, the Affirmative Action Office, College of Health and Human Development Information Systems and Services, and the Learning Assistance Center, decides which technology to provide, based on student needs and requests. The selected hardware and software is then installed and maintained by CLC research programmer Dana Landskroner.
Technology available in the 23 West Pattee lab includes:
Software:
Dragon Naturally Speaking: This software converts a user's spoken words to a text document onscreen, once it has learned an individual's speech pattern over a period of time. Being able to dictate text assists those who have difficulty typing on a keyboard.Duxbury Braille Translator: One workstation in the lab features this software, which converts a text document to Braille onscreen. A user may then send the file to the attached specialized printer, described below.
JAWS: This software reads onscreen text aloud, including program menus, Web pages, and documents.
Kurzweil 1000: This software for blind or low vision users reads text aloud. It recognizes a wide variety of text document formats and allows a user to search a document efficiently. Kurzweil 3000 Scan/Read: This is useful for users with low vision, as well as those with dyslexia. The program allows you to use the attached scanner to scan a document, then convert it to a text document that the software can read aloud. As you listen to a document, the current sentence appears in a different color, and each word is highlighted in turn as it is read. If a user selects a particular word, the software can provide a synonym or slowly pronounce and highlight each syllable.
OpenBook: This software also allows you to scan a document and convert it to a text file that it can read aloud. It includes tools for those with low vision, and it can export a document to the Braille printer.
ZoomText: This software magnifies selected portions of the computer screen. It also reads aloud onscreen text.
Additional accessibility features are built into some operating systems. These include the capability to magnify the screen, and StickyKeys, an application to assist people who have difficulty holding down two or more keys at a time. Landskroner said that both Kurzweil 3000 Read and ZoomText will shortly be installed on at least one workstation equipped with a large monitor in each student computing lab at University Park.
Hardware:AlphaSmart Pro: CLC loans four of these portable text entering devices to students. Consisting of a keyboard and a small LCD screen, this machine allows a student to type lecture notes in class. It is very lightweight and uses much less battery power than a notebook computer, yet allows a user to transfer text files to a personal computer.
Braille Express Printer: This specialized printer works in conjunction with Duxbury Braille Translator, embossing a Braille document on heavy paper.
Canon 5080C high-speed scanner: Lab staff members in 23 West Pattee receive numerous student requests to scan books and other reading materials for course work, so that the text can be read aloud by one of the software applications described above. Book pages are sliced apart, then placed in the scanner, which can quickly scan both sides of a page. Susan Hayya, coordinator for Library Services for Persons with Disabilities, reports that in fall 2003, lab employees scanned over 37,000 pages.
Tactile Image Enhancer: With this device, a user can scan an image, such as a graph or map, then emboss a tactile version of it using special heat-sensitive paper, so it can be "read" with the fingertips.
Video magnifiers: Several types of magnifiers in the lab allow users to place any reading material onto the machine, project it to a screen, then magnify it and zoom in as closely as desired.
Many of the workstations in the lab are also equipped with a large monitor and a scanner for student use.
Furnishings:Two of the lab workstations feature tabletops that can be raised or lowered by pressing a button to adjust them to an optimal height for a particular user, and permit wheelchair access.
Three workstations are separately housed in small rooms with doors, and are reserved for students taking tests. When not being used for testing, they may be used by students dictating text to an application such as Dragon Naturally Speaking.
According to Hayya, a core group of approximately ten to twenty students use the lab in 23 West Pattee each week. "With regard to this lab I rarely hear a dissatisfied word," she says. "All the comments I hear have been positive." William Welsh, director of the Office for Disability Services, also said that most students using the 23 West Pattee lab have reported being very satisfied. He added, "If a student is not satisfied or has a need that is not being met, the issue is brought to the committee for discussion and for a solution." Landskroner explained that the hardware and software currently installed in the 23 West Pattee lab has been determined by the committee to be of most use to current Penn State students with disabilities. Should a future student present new needs, ITS could purchase additional technology promptly. He said it would not be effective, however, to purchase software or equipment before it is needed, as it would quickly become outdated. If additional equipment were needed, he said, Penn State would purchase the latest model. "If the student makes their needs known to the Office for Disability Services, we'll take care of them," said Landskroner.
Welsh reiterated that the Office for Disability Services and CLC "rely on the students to notify us of a problem or a request, and we do what we can within reason to honor the request."
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