Listening to learn: Digital Reading Solutions

[music]

(Narrator) On the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus, there are people with hidden disabilities. Can you spot them?

(Nikki) I have a disease called myasthenia gravis.

(Matt) I was diagnosed with a reading and writing disability in third grade.

(Arlise) I couldn’t grasp information like other students.

(Nikki) My disease affects all the muscles of my body, including my eyes.

(Matt) I was also diagnosed with dyslexia.

(Arlise) I thought I couldn’t learn, I thought I couldn’t read. These are things I thought I could never do.

(Narrator) For many, digital technology has leveled the learning field.

(Cathy) What we've seen is this growth of audio CD and most recently, and probably most significantly, the move to electronic text where students are able to have either material available on the Web or material, print material scanned so they have an electronic version that is then read to them via their computer.

[Synthesized voice]

(Matt) The Kurzweil system, I got my sophomore year. It was kind of a gift. My grandfather noticed that I was still struggling, and that I was having difficulty my first year of college adjusting to a different system. I first had it on my home computer. I am mobile now, so I have everything on a laptop. So the systems come with me.

(B.A.) Students can be much more independent with the tools they have available to them now. They can go to our libraries and bring an article, print article in to scan it on the computers there, and access it independently using Kurzweil 3000.

(Nikki) I see double every now and then. It is really beneficial for me to use the Kurzweil, because it helps me to be able to read. So I scan my books in, and it starts reading the books for me, and it keeps my eyes from getting so weak that I can’t see.

[Synthesized voice]

(Nikki) I am very glad that it is on campus, because it's a great, it's a great service.

(Matt) I have definitely seen a gain using Kurzweil in just my overall reading ability.

(Cathy) And for a lot of students, this was the first time, they had that piece of adaptation put into their curriculum, and all of a sudden they were reading and enjoying it.

(Arlise) They don’t know that I’m listening to my book. They think I’m just walking around listening to a CD. You know you can blend in now.

(Chris) I work at McBurney as an accommodation specialist. I also work with training students on assistive technology. I have a learning disability myself, so, it means a lot to me by helping the students with the same disability be able to get accommodations for college .

(Neal) What is interesting to me is that technology has really improved. And I think it's improved for a lot of people with disabilities, for me, especially. All of my documents are digital now. I don't have to worry about reading stuff on tape. If you can't find it already put in some kind of digital format, and you need it in a hurry, whether it's a book or a chapter, especially chapters, because a professor could come in and say, “Tomorrow read pages 95 through 810 or read chapter 16”, and you don't have that ready . . .

(Narrator) You could go to the campus computer labs.

If you are a Disability Service Provider, located anywhere, you can use a web-based resource, Badger Accessibility Services.

(B.A.) They will tear it apart. They will re-bind it for us. And we get a product that is very accurate in terms of the optical character recognition, so it is pretty true to the text. We don't need to do a lot of editing. And it retains also the graphic representations in the book. So if a student has a learning disability, can not only hear the text, but they can see the figures and charts and illustrations and the textbook itself.

(Tom) Once we receive the material from the Disabilities Service Center, we normally can turn around a document in five days, where we will provide the electronic text via the Internet. We can take in books; classroom packets, electronic PDF's, as well as tape, analog tape, and provide you with electronic text or digital audio.

(Narrator) They have developed a database of online resources, and publisher contact information .

(Tom) So that we can quickly look for your material and as soon as we find the material, press a button, which will generate an e-mail to you with the requested resource as well as the process that the Disability Service Center will need in order to request that document for themselves.

(Narrator) On the UW-Madison campus, digital technology continues to make a difference.

(Chris) It's amazing how in the last five years, how technology has really made a positive impact with students with learning disabilities and other types of health disabilities and conditions. It’s amazing. It's really truly amazing.

(Matt) It's taken me some time to fully realize the strengths I have. If I wasn't using some of the technology out there, I really wouldn't be able to convey my ideas, the way I feel I should be able to and that I need to.

(Neal) I think one of the assumptions that a lot of people have is that digital material is only used by people who are blind. And that is far from true. Now more and more, people of all ages and all backgrounds are learning that they too have access to digital material, and it helps them in whatever area of interest they have.

(Arlise) And when I came in here, I tell you, it’s like a whole new world. I’m so happy.

[laughter] I can’t even tell you how happy I am. You know what I mean, its like because I can sit in a class now. I can actually participate. You’re so happy that you can learn.

Produced by:

Division of Information Technology
Badger Accessibility Services (BAS)
http://www.bas.wisc.edu/

McBurney Disability Resource Center
http://www.mcburney.wisc.edu/

Trace Research and Development Center
http://trace.wisc.edu/

Instructional Media Development Center
http://imdc.education.wisc.edu/

Produced under the direction of

Alice Anderson
Technology Accessibility Program
Division of Information Technology
University of Wisconsin-Madison

With contributions from:

Neal Ewers
B.A. Scheuers
Cathy Trueba
Chris Coppess
J. Trey Duffy
Tom Harron
Geoff Larson
Mathew Thomas Severson
Nikki Hogan
Arlise Donahue

Produced through the facilities of the
Instructional Media Development Center

Narration and Selected Music by

Neal Ewers
Ravenswood Productions
http://ravenswood.org

Support for this project from

Division of Information Technology
Technology Accessibility Program
University of Wisconsin-Madison
1210 West Dayton Street
Madison, WI 53705

Additional Support (or with additional support from)

National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation
Research (NIDRR)
U.S. Department of Education
Grant H133E030012

Transcript – video Page 4 7/27/2005