Assistive Technology

Dragon Naturally Speaking by Nuance has become the leader in Speech to Text and Speech Command. They offer several different products, each which have been enhanced to fulfill a specific need. It is important you review the specification of each product to choose the right one for you.

It is recommended by Nuance to use Dragon Professionals Individual license for the desktop. This version has been optimize to control common operations on your computer. Specific software may require macros. For assistance with setting…

Hi, my name is Nicholas Russo. I am an Assistive Technology Specialist. Whether you are a life long user or just getting started with Assistive Technology (AT), below are a few helpful tips to remember:

• This is always a collaborative process.
• Recommendations are only Recommendations.
• Explore and try many different types of AT to determine what works best for you.

If you have been approved for Assistive Technology through the Office of Disability Services and recently received…

Kurzweil 3000 Read the Web Instructions for Google Chrome

1. You can…

BigBlueButton will appear in Canvas a Collaboration, and in Sakai as meetings. After you've clicked on join meeting, follow the instructions below:

1. The first thing you'll hear is "Join audio alert dialogue" . Click your tab key to select the Microphone or Listen only option.  Listen only, will enter you into the room with your microphone muted.
2. Press Spacebar. You'll hear the words "connecting" afterward.

Alt + Shift + M    Mute / Unmute…

• Both offer text-to-speech, speech-to-text, OCR, and access to the cloud.
• Texthelp includes built-in math support, Kurzweil does not.
• Both offer Windows and Mac support; however, Texthelp offers better web and mobile applications.
• Kurzweil works better for reading Textbooks and PDFs while Texthelp is better at reading websites and EPUBs.

The LiveScribe Pen is a note-taking tool, which allows students to capture their notes digitally, while simultaneously time syncing audio recordings. 

• Windows, Mac

…

Our office provides both Kurzweil 3000 and Read&Write Gold as the recommended tool for interacting with the course content we offer you.

Comparison of Kurzweil and Read&Write

Read&Write is a literacy software with text-to-speech and other note-taking functions to ease students' reading of text files and articles online. There are many features within this software that can help students write  their papers and read texts such as reading out loud, text prediction,  dictionaries, highlighters, and spelling, grammar, and confusable word checks. 

If you are using an Apple laptop or iMac device the following items are useful for you to download and trial before classes start. Apple by default has many accessibility tools built into your device and requires no additional downloads. In some cases these tools are better then software available online. In those cases, where we felt it there was an equal or better solution we provided that information below along side the native IOS software.

…

Screen readers are used by individuals who are blind or have low vision, to read and navigate their computer. Below are some common types of screen reading software:

NonVisual…

Sonocent is an online note-taking tool that combines your recorded audio, typed notes, and powerpoints into one place.

• Windows, Mac, IOS, Android

Recording:

• Record directly through your microphone or phone
• …

There is a variety of Text to Speech tools that allow students who have a difficult time reading print text to listen to their textbooks, webpages, or pdf files with little to no training required. Many of these tools are now offered free and require no subscriptions to use. 

Below are some of our favorites:

Features:

• Text-…

(Information borrowed from University of Colorado Boulder's web site)

Turnitin is an originality-checking service that instructors can enable for assignments in Canvas. There are two layers of Turnitin that students can access: originality scores in Canvas and Turnitin Feedback Studio. Students may view the originality score within Canvas under Submission…