Assistive Technology provides students with disabilities with equal access to computer programs, software, documents, and the World Wide Web.听 Equipment/software purchased by OARS can be checked out by OARS registered students each semester for educational use.
Equipment demonstrations/trainings are available by appointment.听 Please contact OARS by phone at (501) 450-3613 or via email at oars@uca.edu听for more information.
Campus Wide Available Assistive Technology
ReadSpeaker Software Available and free for all Students, Faculty, and Staff
ReadSpeaker is a text to speech program that utilizes web-based technology to provide text to speech software for websites, online documents and accessible forms. Our license specifically integrates with Blackboard and Canvas for student and faculty use. Users can read the whole webpage or document at once, or listen to selected sections. Look for the play button tab, click on it, and the function tool bar will appear near the top. Users can configure reading speed, text color, highlighting by sentence and words, zoom or use a reading ruler. Students can also highlight important words throughout a document, which ReadSpeaker then collects to produce into a separate summary. ReadSpeaker is compatible with the following MS Office听file types: .xlsx, .docx, .pptx. Rich Text .rtf, PDF and ePub.听 Users can even save the audio as an mp3 file.
For more information on how to obtain your own ReadSpeaker license, contact John Ortigo, Assistive Technology Specialist at jortigo@uca.edu.
Resources
The 听has developed a number of resources and听an extensive database of free and inexpensive adaptive technology.
听guide provides a quick overview of the different common disabilities some college students have and the different resources and technologies available to them.
Software and Equipment
– a screen reader mainly used by persons with visual impairments. Icons, text and links on the a computer鈥檚 screen are read aloud by access to keyboard navigation.
听– a screen enlargement software program mainly useable by persons who experience low-vision.听 ZoomText enlarges the entire computer screen by varying amounts and will also read the screen text aloud.
– a computer screen reading system which converts the text material displayed on the computer screen to voice output for persons with reading disabilities. Text can be displayed in various colors and words being read can be highlighted as they are read aloud. Kurzweil 3000 will also convert text files to audio files to WAV or MP3 formats.
鈥� 听a voice recognition input system for persons with manual (hand/arm) impairments or written expression learning disabilities. Users enter text with punctuation into the computer by speaking rather than by keyboarding. Users can also control the computer鈥檚 operations with voice commands. This program requires a few hours of training, including building a personal voice profile, and practice, in order to become proficient with a good degree of accuracy. Students can train this software on their home computer, save their voice profile on a CD or flash drive, then load their voice profile onto another computer equipped with this software.
Free Assistive Technology
There are many free Assistive Technology resources available online, please see the list below. This is only a partial list, as there are a wide variety of options.
Reading Support
听– Basic text-to-speech program. Listen to PDF files, web pages, e-books, e-textbooks, office documents and even printed books. Magnification up to 72 point font or 200%. Available online or for download.
Writing Support
听–听Grammarly eliminates spelling errors, writing mistakes, contextual errors, and poor vocabulary usage.听听Grammarly finds and听corrects up to 10 times more听mistakes than your word processor.
听–听Program auto-completes words as you type and听spelling mistakes are corrected before they happen.
Integrates within most programs, including Microsoft Word, Outlook, Gmail, Facebook and more.
Note Taking Support
听–听A one-stop place to collect notes, files, web clippings, and images with the ability to access them on virtually any device. (Basic Version is free.)
听–听Take all your notes in OneNote by typing, writing with a touchscreen, importing pictures, video, web links and other resources. You can also divide up your classes and work by notebook, section, and pages.听Search your notes for the ability to easily find what you need.
Dictation/Speech-to-Text/Speech Recognition
听–听Speech recognition software that听dictates words into text messages, emails, social media, or paste into other apps and programs using the clipboard feature. *Compatibility: iOS: iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch
听–听Speech recognition within google chrome or google docs.听Go into your Tools menu in the Google Chrome Browser and select Voice Typing, click on the microphone that pops up and start talking.听Your text will be entered into the typing field and you will be able to correct mistakes without moving your cursor.
Vision Support
听–听Non-Visual Desktop Access (NVDA) is a free, open source screen reader built for Windows based operating system computers. Works with most applications such as web browsers, email, and听Microsoft Office programs. *Compatibility:听Windows
Built-in Accessibility
听–听Doesn鈥檛 just tell you what鈥檚 happening, it helps you make things happen. It tells you what鈥檚 on your screen, and walks you through actions like selecting a menu option or听activating a button using your keyboard or trackpad. VoiceOver gives you听complete control of your Mac, with no need to see听the screen. And it鈥檚 already built in.听*Compatibility: iOS
听–听Centralized location in the Control Panel where you can adjust accessibility settings and programs.