Disability Resources

Assistive Technology

Technology is not the answer to all problems faced by people with various learning styles, but these valuable tools can make learning easier.

Put Assistive Technology to work for you! What learning tasks do you need help with?

Reading Tasks

Your computer can be a powerful study tool. Reading software can help you:

• Read/listen to the text
• Highlight the main ideas, details, vocabulary, etc in different colors
• Make study guides form your highlighting
• Define and learn new vocabulary

Sound good?

Click on the programs below for a demo - then ask DR how you can use these for your reading and studying.

TextHelp Read&Write GOLD Scans and reads textbooks and class materials. Also tools for highlighting text and converting highlighted text to a study guide. You can save your text on an audiofile for your i-Pod or mp3 player.

Kurzweil 3000 - Scans and reads textbooks and class materials. Tools for highlighting text and converting highlighted text to a study guide. You can save your text on an audiofile for your i-Pod or mp3 player.

Kurzweil 1000 - Scans and reads textbooks and class materials as above, but uses key strokes for individuals with visual disabilities.

ZoomText - enlarges and reads text on computer screens, reads web pages.

Writing Tasks

Click on the programs below for a demo - then ask DR how you can use these for your textbooks.

TextHelp Read&Write GOLD Helps organize your writing with mapping, then converts the map to an outline. Word prediction and word definition features help find - and spell - the right word. Reads words and sentences as you type for easier proofreading.

Kurzweil 3000 Helps organize your writing with mapping, then converts the map to an outline. Word prediction and word definition features help find - and spell - the right word. Reads words and sentences as you type for easier proofreading.

Dragon Naturally Speaking - Eliminates use of key strokes and mouse (guarenteed rodent-free). You tell the computer what to write. Takes some training to use it, but gets better with more use.

Other Software and Hardware

Trouble seeing the monitor?
Check out ZoomText or MAGic on a 21 inch monitor. These software programs provide an "electronic magnifying glass", line-by-line highlighting, contrasting text-to-background combinations, text window sizing, and screen reading.

Need a one-handed keyboarding?
Adjustable-height work station?
Trackball?

All above assistive technology is available in the UMD Library.

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