Assistive Technology Services 2013

Welcome to the Disability and Assistive Technology Center. Today, we'd like to show you the Assistive Technology office and computer lab. Marge Strong is the AT program coordinator along with assistive technology assistants who are here to introduce you to the AT services. There are two main categories to distinguish, one being Disability Services, phone number 715-346-3365, and Assistive Technology, phone number 715-346-4980. Both of these offices are located on the 6th floor of the University Library. The library is building 8 on the campus map, located kitty corner from the DUC, building 40 and just behind the TNR, which is building 12. Today, we will be focusing on the Assistive Technology services. You might be asking yourself, "What is Assistive Technology?" This program is a service to help promote equal access to information and learning for students, staff, and faculty with alternative learning styles. Why do we provide this service? Students can use the tools AT provides to enhance their reading and writing abilities and their study skills. Our computer programs and equipment are designed to aid students who qualify, and are challenged by, dyslexia, vision-impairment, Attention Deficit Disorder, and more, as well as those who are primary audio learners. Our lab currently consists of 1 Mac and 8 PC computer workstations with campus load programs. Three stations have adjustable tables with a Logitech keyboard and mouse with zoom features and one with a large print key board. The DaVinci is an option in the lab for students who have low-vision needs, and a printer and scanner are also available for students to use if they need to print or scan their own papers. Our hours are 8 am to 4:30 pm Monday through Friday. The office is open by appointment during winter and summer sessions, while our computer lab is open during regular library hours. The Assistive Technology's mission is to help students with special needs foster their independence, improve their educational experience, and prepare them to be lifelong learners. One of our goals is to get digital text for our students using five main methods... The first method is Access Text Network. This system allocates for electronic textbooks and alternative forms of learning for higher education. Accesstext.org acts as a mediator between publishing companies and post-secondary disability programs of universities. This is a service we use to obtain files from the publisher. Although finding a student's e-books may seem easy, sometimes the AT staff has to have a hard copy brought in and scanned. Scanning a book into the computer in a PDF file format is another service the AT office provides. This is often the last step when trying to find a student's books. Once the book has been scanned into a PDF and broken down into chapters, the student's books are transferred onto the Assistive Technology website. Learning Ally works to bring more accessible resources to people with learning differences. When a book is paired with a human voice, the visual and audio learner combined will have a much easier learning experience, and this is the goal that Learning Ally and the AT staff hope to achieve. BookShare is another effective program that enables students with print disabilities to learn through the highlighting of text while it is read out loud. When a student qualifies for BookShare, the AT program helps them receive their books and guides them through how to use the program. Electronic books are becoming a widely used resource because so many websites are offering them up for little to no cost. Devices such as the Kindle or iPad are great in terms of reading e-books. Our next goal is to have Assistive Technology equipment and software such as Premier Literacy Suite, which is available to all students, and faculty on any campus computer. This program has components, including a Launch Pad, to help students read Word documents, PDF files, web pages, e-mails, D2L files, e-reserve files, or an e-file from their textbook. Here are two of the components Premier has to offer: First, the PDF Equalizer is tool within Premier that gives students the ability to practice with note taking in each chapter and other text-to-audio capabilities. Secondly, The Talking Word Processor can be used as a guide when typing papers, because it not only has a spell check but also a grammar corrector and a thesaurus. Features such as word and sentence repeat lend a hand to students who are not fast at typing. Along with Premier is another text-to-voice program called Kurzweil, which gives students with a documented disability the capability to listen to their books. However, Kurzweil is only offered within the Assistive Technology lab. The dictation room on the 3rd floor 316A is used to tutorial students on Dragon Naturally Speaking. To get started, the student will make an appointment with an AT staff member to train the computer to the sound of their voice. Dragon Naturally Speaking is software that enables people to dictate their papers instead of typing them, which can be very helpful to those individuals who are not fast at typing. The AT lending library has a variety of pieces of equipment that are checked out to students for an average of 1 week per item. This lending library is a "try before you buy" courtesy program which helps students try products on a temporary basis and is not meant for an entire academic semester check out. We also do not sell our equipment but can refer you to companies that do. Here are just a few of the items the AT lab offers students: The Smartpen is a device that allows you to record your professor's lectures while you take notes. This way the notes coincide with the audio recording of the lecture. Another recording device is the DSS Olympus Recorder. This gadget gives individuals the opportunity to simply record their lectures. The Premier Key to Access is a tool that puts Premier on the student's personal computer, and once their check-out trial is over, they can go out and buy their own key to access. Victor Reader Stream and Daisy Player is a way for students to download electronic books from their computer or onto a CD and then listen to them. Lastly, the Transformer Electronic Portable Magnifier is a great solution for the visually impaired to read, write, and magnify images in a classroom or their personal computer screen. We feel it is important to share feedback from students who take advantage of our services. This feedback is collected through surveys completed by students using the AT lab. These are just a few of many comments received over the years. If you find that you are having a hard time locating academic support you can go any one of these websites and see what these programs have to offer. If you have any questions about the information or want to learn more contact us via phone or email Marge at mstrong@uwsp.edu. The Assistive Technology Office also has a website! I hope that this presentation has been helpful, and thank you for your time.