Assistive Technology

The presentation of the disability services that the University provides for students was enlightening.  Jennifer Weir gave a great walk through and explanation of the 13 tools that can be found in their lab.  These tools are provided to ensure that students with disabilities are encouraged to be independent in their pursuit of an education.  One of the first things shown during the walk-through was an adjustable standing desk that helps students in wheelchairs use the machines otherwise not at their reach.  Among the assistive technology tools used to help students with trouble with such things as hearing, the Echo LiveScribe Smart Pen which is used to record everything you and write and records everything the Professor is saying in class.  Another tool I found to be very helpful was the Comfort Contego FM System, this device can either be used to catch sound throughout the classroom for class discussion or directed at the Professor during lectures.  If the students isn't shy enough to ask, the Professor can be given a microphone to clip to themselves to ensure clearer hearing.  It was brought to our attention that the University will be installing a looping system on campus to help protect the FM system from interference.  Students with vision impairments are provided with the Victor Stream DAISY Player that reads books that are saved to an SD card.  This device has navigation buttons that allow you to skip to chapters and pages needed.  I found this to be very intriguing, but learned that this is time consuming and cost is high for signing students up for the program in order to receive SD cards.  It was encouraging to learn of the helpful tools that are provided to students with disabilities.