Assistive Technology Available in the CTLE

The Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence (CTLE) offers Instructional Technology Services to faculty and students in the teaching and learning environment. We have an instructional lab that contains high-end software and hardware that is available to assist students in using and incorporating technology into the learning process.

Software Tools:

Kurzweil 3000™ is the comprehensive reading, writing and learning software solution for any struggling reader, including individuals with learning difficulties, such as dyslexia, attention deficit disorder or those who are English Language Learners. In addition to typical screen reading programs, the K3000 can highlight specific words, sentences or paragraphs. It also has dictionary and thesaurus tools.

Dragon Naturally Speaking (DNS) is a voice recognition software that enables a person to dictate directly to the computer with your words appearing right on the screen.

Inspiration © 8.0 is a concept mapping software that helps students develop essential learning strategies as they create graphic organizers to visually represent concepts and relationships. Inspiration©'s integrated diagramming and outlining views and complementary learning capabilities work together to make Inspiration the essential tool to help students visualize, think, organize and learn.

myReader 600 scans and captures the entire page and then presents it to users just the way they want to read.

• Improved Navigation: myReader has no XY table. All navigation is done using the control panel. Using this users are able to navigate around a document without having to physically move the document. Unlike other products myReader brings the words to the user. This reduces the mental and physical fatigue that people often experience when using a device fitted with an XY table.
• Automatic scrolling: With myReader you can set the text to scroll automatically at the touch of a dial, while maintaining the control of the speed. If you prefer you can control the scrolling manually or step through the text a screen at a time.
• Built-in 15" LCD screen: myReader operates at 75Hz so the super sharp LCD screen is flicker free and radiation free. For added comfort, the monitors height and tilt angle can be adjusted to suit the users requirements. By having a built-in LCD monitor and no XY table, myreader only takes up a limited amount of space.
• Simple controls: myReader is operated via a separate control panel, which is clearly labelled and easy to use. The control panel is designed to allow users to operate myReader for long periods. The control panel allows users to: adjust the speed they are reading at, manually navigate through a document, advance through the text a screen at a time, change display modes, select a new document, change the size and colours on the screen, set margins and access menus.

ZoomText 8.1 Magnifier is designed to assist students who are visually impaired or blind because it enlarges and enhances everything on the computer screen, making all of the applications easy to see and use.

OpenBook 7.0, created by Freedom Scientific, is a scanning and reading application, which will scan in documents, convert them to electronic text, and literally read aloud the contents of the page, providing access to individuals with blindness or severe low-vision. The software also provides other access, including the ability to save audio files of electronic documents, allowing individuals to burn CDs or use MP3 players to listen to their texts. The software will also connect with Bookshare.org, the Baen Free library, and other online gratis text resources to download free copies of books.

Connect Outloud™ is designed for the beginning or experienced blind or low vision computer user to access the Internet through speech and braille output. This software is based on the popular JAWS© for Windows© technology and offers additional access to the Windows XP operating system.

Hardware T ools:

• Adjustable workstations
• Large, flat screen monitors
• High speed scanners
• CCTV – Closed circuit television system

For assistance with the adaptive computer equipment or software programs, please contact Aileen McHale (mchalea1@scranton.edu) or Eugeniu Grigorescu (grigorescue2@scranton.edu) to schedule an appointment for one-on-one assistance.

Adaptive equipment is available for short-term loan through the CTLE:

ALPHASMART are lightweight, portable electronic keyboards. They temporarily store typed text for later upload to PC- or Mac-based documents.