News
High-tech help for visually impaired students at UNT Dallas
Laura Smith (l), associate director of student life at the University of North Texas at Dallas, works with student Jean Hackney to select a computerized voice from software that reads to her.
DALLAS—This fall students at the University of North Texas at Dallas can have Grandma, Grandpa, Shelly, Sherry, Reid, Justin, Nanny or Gramps read to them. Or they could choose Mickey, Microsoft Sam or Microsoft Mary.
Those are some of the 19 “voices” to choose from on computer software for students with learning disabilities such as dyslexia and attention deficit disorder or those who are learning to speak English. Users must scan a document, and then the software will read it to them. In addition to the voices, students can adjust the speed and have the text translated into Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese or Finnish.
The innovative Kurzweil 3000 Reading, Writing and Learning software—which was released in September 2008—is part of UNT Dallas’ efforts to serve students with disabilities. Because they will be listening to the voice read to them for many hours, students spend a lot of time listening to the voices before they select one, said Larry Phillips, one of the school’s librarians.
Jean Hackney, 69, is getting an applied arts and sciences degree with a certificate in geriatrics. She graduated salutatorian of her class at Booker T. Washington High School in Plainview, Texas, in 1959, but she couldn’t afford to go to college. When her husband of 35 years died in 2005, she decided to get her college degree. Hackney chose “Justin” because his tone was not too soft or high pitched.
“I would say he has more of a baritone voice. It wasn’t offensive. It was a door opener,” Hackney said.
UNT Dallas has several visually-impaired students, and the school’s first blind student with a service animal is planning to enroll in the spring 2010 semester. Hackney said she does not have a reading disability but is not a rapid reader. The reading software helps her stay focused because the words being read aloud are highlighted on the computer screen.
“When there are words that I am not familiar with, I am able to isolate that word, get the meaning of that word and also hear how the word is pronounced,” Hackney said.
“We are constantly in the market for equipment for students with disabilities,” said Laura Smith, associate director for student life. “Several years ago we enrolled a quadriplegic student. To accommodate him, we purchased a keyboard that mounted to his wheelchair. We would Velcro his books to these mechanical arms that attached to his wheelchair, and he would use a stick in his mouth to flip the pages. It was really amazing.”
UNT Dallas building has automatic exterior doors and restrooms on the first floor do not have entry doors. This past year the school acquired a tabletop magnifier and two portable magnifiers that students may check out and take to class. And all computers on campus that are student accessible are equipped with Magic screen-enlargement software as well as Jaws software, which will read to users everything on a computer screen.
Restrooms with no doors and automatic doors are examples of universal design, Smith said, something all universities are moving toward. The Kurzweil reading software is the same because it helps everyone, not just people with disabilities.
“It is helpful for students who have a hard time with reading comprehension or with reading skills in general. So often students don’t read much anymore so they don’t learn how to spell, they just learn how words sound.”
The school also provides a service that doesn’t require adaptive equipment—the human resource. When students need someone to read an exam to them, staff members sit with them in a testing room and read to them. If students can’t write because of motor difficulties, someone writes their answers for them.
“It’s actually harder than you think to scribe for someone because if I’m writing the answers down for a student and he gives me the wrong answer or I know that it’s not a complete sentence or has grammatical errors, it’s hard to fight the urge to correct it because that’s not the responsibility of a scribe. But I find myself wanting to edit, ‘Oh, you didn’t mean to say that. What you meant to say was this,’” Smith said smiling.
Disabilities can discourage students from enrolling in college or prevent those who do enroll from achieving everything possible during their college years. The Student Development Office (SDO) wants to help them be successful.
“I think a lot of time students with disabilities come on campus and they’re nervous thinking they won’t be successful because they are hindered in some way,” said John Daniels, student activities coordinator. “Our mission is to provide services to students so that they can optimize their experience here on campus, get the degree they want and find a successful job afterwards.”
Students must submit documentation from an appropriate provider saying they have a documented disability. The type of disability and its impact on the student’s learning determines the appropriate accommodations and access to adaptive equipment.
After the school receives the paperwork, Smith or Daniels interviews the students and determines what sorts of accommodations they qualify for. Students must initiate the process because the school legally is not able to recommend accommodations to students. “But we try to make that easy for them to do,” Daniels said.
“If a student came to me and said that he or she was deaf, I would begin the process of purchasing equipment for a deaf student because it is likely that student would be the first deaf student on our campus,” Smith said. “The goal of disability accommodations is to provide students with equal access to services.
“Sometimes there is a misconception that students with disabilities get an advantage because maybe they get more time on a test or they get a separate testing environment, but in reality it’s just about creating equal access,” Smith added.
Both Smith and Daniels said that helping students with disabilities is very gratifying.
“Being able to provide them with the accommodations they need to be successful in school is certainly fulfilling. Pablo was our quadriplegic student, and every time he completed a class with the help of his adaptive equipment, I felt really good because I thought, the only thing he can move is his head, and he can still complete his classes and get his master’s degree.”
Is UNT Dallas a friendly campus to students with disabilities?
“It tries to be,” Daniels said. “We’re a very diverse campus, so we try to be sensitive to all the various needs that students bring with them.”
“The equipment we have now is a good start; eventually we’ll need to have more to serve a larger population of students with disabilities,” Daniels said. “In the fall of 2010 when we have freshman and sophomore classes, we will definitely need to beef up our equipment for students with disabilities.”
For More Information:
David Porter
Associate Director of Marketing, News and Information
(972) 780-3663
David.Porter@unt.edu