Universal Design and Assistive Technology

Universal Design is a concept that – in a perfect global – could enable those college students with an incapacity to go into a room and at once have EQUAL ACCESS to all information. With Universal Design, assistive technology can be used so that elegance training can be easily completed by using anybody together with those individuals with disabilities who use the assistive era.

The following variations are regular examples of Universal Design: sliding automated doorways, massive restroom doorways and stalls, adjustable tables, sidewalk reduction cuts, texting, motion lighting fixtures, lever handles, and e-books. Each of these examples makes absolutely everyone’s existence simpler, not just someone with a disability.

• Assistive Technology for Hard of Hearing and Deaf

For folks that are hard of hearing or deaf, a Sorenson provider uses far-off interpreters through a videophone. Videophones are loose with the Sorenson provider. Individuals can be in a single location, and the interpreter may be in any other kingdom. Some colleges have CART reporting to be had to Hard of Hearing and Deaf college students. The CART reporter sits outdoor a class and listens via headphones to make an exact transcript of the lecture, just like a court reporter. FM systems also are available for individuals who have hearing impairments. FM structures will extend the sound from room to room. One man or woman wears a small device with a transmitter, and the alternative character wears a receiver. The individual with the receiver can listen to what the alternative person pronounces as if they may be next to every other. Assistive Technology like FM systems has to be had to everybody who visits a museum or enjoys a performance at an auditorium or film theater.

• Braille/Tactile Diagrams

For a person who’s blind, the Braille generation is to be had in private computer systems known as PacMates that permit people to take their personal notes with the use of a Braille keypad. Tactile diagrams for technological know-how are also available for human anatomy models, move-sections of the pinnacle, brain, nose, mouth, throat, breathing tract, heart, digestive machine, and so on. Tactile maps are also to be had for each person taking a geography class or studying the globe. Textbooks and exams in faculty can be produced in Braille for everybody soliciting for such offerings.

• E-Text

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E-text is now to be had through many textbook and non-educational publishers. Students who have disabilities may additionally qualify at no cost copies of their textbooks from Recordings for the Blind and Dyslexia. The University of Virginia also has thousands of e-books to be had for college students. Kent State University has a non-business repository for ebook studies, and Project Gutenberg has many e-books that are free of rate. Google has over 500,000 e-books that can be free to get admission to. Most publishers need a “proof of purchase” for college textbooks before imparting an e-textual content opportunity version of the e-book. Kindle, The Nook, and Sony all have electronic readers for thousands of books; however, interested individuals ought to additionally check for textual content-to-speech software with a purpose to permit them to listen to the ebook in addition to study it.

• Physical Disabilities/Wheelchair Users

Wheelchair era and add-on structures are to be had for recreational sports like bowling and soccer. Paralympic athletes compete in international paralympic wearing events. In addition, specialized wheelchair carts with balloon tires are an alternative for riding over sandy beaches. For people with confined upper body movement, pc access can be accomplished using massive trackballs, a foot mouse, sip and puff devices, and a head-controlled mouse. Electric eyes can be provided that permit computers get the right of entry to and manipulate through limited head motion or even eye blinks.

• Screen Magnifiers

Personal computers all have accessibility alternatives consisting of a zoom function for someone with low imagination and prescient. You can locate get entry to on the Control Panel feature of your PC. Zoom Text enlarges print for a person with low vision, and Zoom Text with speech additionally consists of a display screen reader. Products from Kurzweil and Freedom Scientific additionally offer display readers and magnifiers. Home magnifiers are not only top for college students. However, the era will assist folks that do exceptional paintings with their fingers. Their palms can be magnified onto a display so that people can see their knitting, writing, or small element upkeep. The camera era also makes lifestyles more accessible to people with low vision. A selection of products that enlarge textual content for a person with low imagination and prescient can be used on a desktop, is transportable, or worn on the head for someone with mobility disabilities. For example, Flipper uses a camera to project information from the study room board onto a private laptop. Jordy is a product worn on the top. Small pocket digital magnifiers are helpful while seeking to examine important points all through purchasing because the person can push a button and freeze the photograph for less complicated access to the enlarged print. These merchandises are to be had at low vision websites. In addition, you may get a microscope. This is digital. The consumer hooks it via a laptop with special software. The laptop is then attached to a projector, and it enlarges the slide onto a wall or table for all to view immediately. Math calculators are to be had that use an overhead to assignment onto the wall.

• Speech-to-Text

Someone with low imaginative and prescient or hand movement restrictions can use a speech-to-textual content product like Dragon Naturally Speaking, one in every of Nuance voice control products. Nuance voice Controls will permit customers to apply voice commands to dictate emails to Blackberry, feature appointments, and look at the internet. Sony ICD-SX46 Digital Voice Recorder may be used with Dragon NaturallySpeaking Software. Tablet PCs have a sensitive display screen designed to engage with a complimentary pen. You can use the pen without delay at the screen like a mouse to choose, drag, and open documents and can be used in the region of a keyboard to handwriting notes. Tablet PCs should also have speech-to-text generation. Nexus 1 Smartphone has a Speech-to-Text characteristic as nicely.

Screen readers also are available free of charge or buy, depending upon the product. ReadPlease is an unfastened display reader for home use that reads textual content, reducing and pasted to the display screen reader on a computer. Students who’re blind can use JAWS to listen to the whole lot on their laptops. Zoom Text and Magic additionally have text readers built into their software program. Electronic pens are to be had, which could read notes aloud, scan and shop text, and transfer facts to PDAs, Smartphones, and Personal Computers. Some of these pens can also translate English into other languages. The Pulse Smartpen through Live Scribe lets the consumer record notes and then replay the written words via tapping at the notes. Notes can be stored on the computer and shared as Flash videos, PDF files, or audio documents.