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 typical of Universal Design: sliding automated doorways, massive restroom doorways and stalls, adjustable tables, sidewalk reduction cuts, texting, motion lighting fixtures, lever handles, and ebooks. 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 who 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 for hard-of-hearing and Deaf college students. The CART reporter sits outside in class and listens via headphones to make an exact lecture transcript, 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 each other. Assistive Technology like FM systems must be provided by 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 notes using 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 such offerings.

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• E-Text

E-text is now to be had through many textbook and non-educational publishers. Students who have disabilities may additionally qualify at no cost for copies of their books from Recordings for the Blind and Dyslexia. The University of Virginia also has thousands of ebooks for college students. Kent State University has a non-business repository for ebook studies, and Project Gutenberg has many ebooks that are free of rate. Google has over 500,000 ebooks 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 ebook. 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 that permits them to listen to and study the ebook.

• 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 that permit computers to get the right of entry to and manipulate through limited head motion or even eye blinks can be provided.

• Screen Magnifiers

Personal computers all have accessibility alternatives consisting of a zoom function for someone with low imagination and prescient. You can locate and get entry to the Control Panel feature of your PC. Zoom Text enlarges print for a person with low vision, and Zoom Text with speech also includes 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 who 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, 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 computer is then attached to a projector, enlarging the slide onto a wall or table for all to view immediately. Math calculators are to be had that use an overhead 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 it can be used in the region of a keyboard to write notes. Tablet PCs should also have speech-to-text generation. Nexus 1 Smartphone has a Speech-to-Text characteristic as well.

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, reduces it, and pastes it to the display screen reader on a computer. Students who are 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 programs. Electronic pens can 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 by tapping on the letters. Messages can be stored on the computer and shared as Flash videos, PDF files, or audio documents.