Universal Access IT
A 2004 study commissioned by Microsoft showed that in the US, the following percentages of adult computer users had difficulties or impairments in these areas: 25% vision, 25% dexterity, 20% hearing, 16% cognitive, and 3% speech.
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The Academic Success Center (ASC)
Adaptive and Assistive Technology Resources
Student Software Training
Huston Hall
Cheney, WA 99004
Accessiblity Software Training
Assistive technologies are specialty hardware and software products that provide essential accessibility to computers for those with a variety of vision, hearing, dexterity, language, or learning needs.
These same technologies also benefit any user that needs to view information in an alternate format to either enhance access to the information or better accomodate different learning styles.
EWU provides self-help training resources for Adaptive and Assistive Technology Resources through the Atomic Learning accessibility collection training videos which are free from any campus computer.
For EWU employees that require off-campus access to these videos, then contact the service desk at 509-359-2247 to obtain a VPN account or login here if you already have one.
All enrolled EWU students have a VPN account and should contact TechEZE for assistance or login here.
OPERATING SYSTEMS - Built-in Accessibility Features
- Windows 7 - Ease of Access Accessibility Features (Atomic Video) or (Microsoft Tutorials)
- Windows Vista - Ease of Access Accessibility Features (Atomic Video)
- Windows XP - Accessibility Features (Atomic Video)
- Macintosh OSX 10.4 (Tiger) - Universal Access Features (Atomic Video)
- Macintosh OSX 10.5 (Leopard) - Universal Access Features (Atomic Video)
- Macintosh OSX VoiceOver - Blind User Accessibility Resources
MICROSOFT OFFICE SUITE - Built-in Accessibility Features
JAWS SCREEN READER - Text-to-speech computer screen reader (supports blind and low vision Windows users)
NATURAL READER - Text-to-speech screen reader (low-moderate vision, cognition, learning support for users).
- Low-cost readers (Atomic Video) - located at bottom of the page.
- Training videos from the publisher (NaturalSoft)
DRAGON NATURALLY SPEAKING - Speech-to-text for dictation and/or computer control (support motor impaired users).
ZOOMTEXT READER/MAGNIFIER - Screen magnification and screen reader (supports low vision, blind, and color blind users).
READ & WRITE GOLD 9 - For desktop scanner/document OCR support, learning and study skills, word prediction, talking dictionary, homophone checker, system-wide text/image to speech support, language translation, PDF Accessibility Editor, research tools, Text-to-MP3 support. (supports cognition, learning, organization and more).
- TextHelp Read & Write Gold (Atomic Video) and Video Tour (publisher)
- Wynn Wizard (Atomic Video) - available upon request
SCANNING AND ALTERNATIVE TEXT:
There are 4 ShareScan Stations available on campus. One each at the JFK Library, PUB Computer Lab, Spokane Riverpoint Computer Lab, and the Disability Support Services.
The scanstations greatly enhance a users ability to quicky scan and convert documents and books to readable text (OCR), saved directly to their EWU NetStorage or email, which can be further enhanced using a variety of magnification and screen reader tools that are widely available on most of EWU's General Access computers.
The ShareScan Stations also serve as an alternative to copying which conserves physical resources such as ink and paper as well as saves students time and money.
CREATING ACCESSIBLE DOCUMENTS, VIDEOS AND WEB PAGES
- Acrobat Pro 9 - Creating Accessible PDF Documents (Atomic Video)
- MS Office 2004 (MAC) - Creating Accessible Office Documents (Atomic Video)
- MS Office 2007 (WIN) - Creating Accessible Office Documents (Atomic Video)
- Introduction to web accessibility (WebAIM)
- W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)
- UniversalSubtitles.org (free, open source tool for creating closed caption videos)
USEFULL WebAIM ARTICLES ABOUT DOCUMENT AND WEB ACCESSIBILITY
- Defining PDF Accessibility (WebAIM)
- Converting Documents to PDF (WebAIM)
- Acrobat and Accessibilty - Creating Accessible PDF Documents (WebAIM)
- Facts and Opinions about PDF Accessibilty (WebAIM)
- Creating Videos with Closed Captioning (WebAIM)
- WebAIM ARTICLE: Using JAWS to Evaluate Web Accessibility (Although the practice is not officially endorsed by Freedom Scientific this article is a good resource to gain insight in the how a blind JAWS user navigates websites.
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Looking for something else?
Need software training for non-assistive technology software products such as Adobe and Microsoft, or EWU Applications such as Banner? Then click here.
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Questions about this page?
Something missing such as a tutorial or you would like to learn more about how and where to access these products at EWU? Then contact Joe Novo
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Disclaimer: EWU does not in any way endorse the products described on this web page as comprehensive listing of all possible accessibility products. The purpose of this page is to better describe resources available at EWU and to provide education resources for students. This list is not a comprehensive listing of all manufacturers of accessibility products.
The products listed on this page represent a variety of accessibility software solutions that are supported at Eastern Washington University through iTech Student Technology, Disabilty Support Services, Disability Studies and Universal Access, and the EWU Office of Information Technology.
