A Technical Look AT Accessibility Through Assistive Technology in Post-Secondary Schools
By Phillips, Carolyn P.; CSUN Technology and Persons With Disabilities Conference - 2004,Publication Date: 2004
Paper discusses the importance of assistive technology (AT) in post-secondary educational settings for students with disabilities, which the author contends is underutilized due to a lack of knowledge and funding. The author stresses that AT can affect the lives of people with disabilities in all daily living tasks, be it in the classroom, at work, in the home, or in other social situations. Low-tech devices should not be overlooked as valuable AT tools in educational settings. For example, as inexpensive color highlighters can help people with reading difficulties to distinguish words that appear the same, like proud, pound, and pond. Professors or assistants can highlight the word in question in different color schemes, and can make the reader visually aware of their subtle differences. High tech devices, such as optical character recognition systems, can provide a means of entering text or printed material into a computer by utilizing a scanner. Once text has been scanned into a computer, it can be read back to the user through the use of a speech synthesizer. The author contends that without such reasonable accommodations, students are presented with significant barriers in education.
Published by: Center on Disabilities at CSUN (Website:http://www.csun.edu/cod/)
Link to text: http://www.csun.edu/cod/conf/2004/proceedings/263.htm
