New program to aid students with disabilities

A program developed in the spring of 2003 to aid students with disabilities in reading will be available for students this fall.\nLast year, IU's Adaptive Learning Technology Center partnered with Bookshare.org, an online service with a library of pre-scanned books. According to University Information Technology Services there are a number of schools who have started using this program to better benefit students with disabilities in reading, such as visual impairments, dyslexia and learning disabilities, including attention deficit disorder.\nBefore starting the program with Bookshare.org, IU students needed to have the binding cut from their books in order to scan them into the computer. This made it more difficult for the students to sell the books after they were through using them.\n"A lot of students really complained that we have to chop the books," digital text specialist Amber Kennedy said.\nThe Adaptive Learning Technology Center began looking for alternatives. Their choices were either having publishers send books electronically or using Bookshare.org.\nBookshare.org has a wide variety of educational books and enjoyment novels, Kennedy said. There are approximately 15,000 digital books that are available to subscribers of Bookshare.org.\n"(Bookshare.org is) very useful because ... I don't have to scan the books. They are just there," said Adaptive Technology employee Mary Stores.\nAfter becoming a member of Bookshare.org, students no longer have to scan books into a computer. The process begins at the Internet site where the student looks for the book they need or want to read and downloads it to the computer. Once it is in the computer, if the student is visually impaired, they can open it up from the ATC's software called JAWS. The student can then enjoy the book thanks to the software, which will read to the student.\n"It is tough to be in college and additional barriers make it tougher," Kennedy said, "This puts students on level playing fields."\nHowever, sophomore Bill Greely said the program can be difficult to adapt to. \n"I think it's kind of hard to navigate," Greely said. \nFor students like Greely, Bookshare.org provides a customer service area to answer questions. ATC also offers assistance to students.\nGreely said the program became easier to use after he accessed the Web site more frequently.\n"I think the positive will outweigh the negative," Greely said. "Once you get used to it, I think it would be great."\nIn order to be a member of Bookshare.org, students need to contact the Disability Student Services, a confidential service, to see if they are applicable, and must have a documented disability.\nStores encourages students to apply if they feel it would benefit them. \n"I would encourage people to use it if they need it," Stores said.\n-- Contact staff writer Joetta Hinton at jehinton@indiana.edu.