Tech center assists disabled students

Located on the first floor of the library and bordered by glass windows, the majority of students look straight past it. The Adaptive Technology Center often goes unnoticed by many students. But if they took time to look around, however, they might realize IU has many services that give the University its great reputation.\nThe ATC specializes in helping students, faculty and staff with disabilities. To help students with disabilities get the most out of their time spent at IU, the ATC provides these students with new technologies that can assist them with reading, writing and comprehension of course material.\nFounded by Margret Londergan, the current director of the center, the ATC is about five years old and caters to students with visual and muscular impairments, learning disabilities and hearing loss. According to its Web site, ATC founders believe the center's one-on-one consultation provides an effective way to learn about the adaptive technologies available on campus. For students, it's also an easy way to determine which services are best for them.\nDuane Wilson, a specialist at the ATC, said the center furnishes people with the specific technology they might need. \n"'Jaws' is a program that reads the computer screen for you," Wilson said. "A GS cell, refreshable Braille display is hooked up to the computer and translates words into Braille so that blind students can read what is on screen. The program helps satisfy the needs of blind students, as it offers them a method for interpreting their textbooks." \nWilson said there are many other specialized programs the ATC provides to cater to peoples' specific disabilities. \n"People who may suffer carpel tunnel syndrome or have trouble using their arms can use the 'Dragon Naturally Speaking' program, which allows students to use their voice to give the computer commands," he said. "When students are writing a paper using this program, they speak into a headset, and their words appear on-screen." \nSuch top-notch technology is not only garnering increased usage by students and faculty but also is receiving attention at other universities across America. In fact, Londergan has attended many conferences to introduce one of the ATC's latest technologies -- high-speed scanning. \nThis technology allows students to scan their course materials onto a computer and place them onto a CD to be interpreted by one of the above programs.\n"We serve a wide variety of students with mobility impairments, vision impairments, hearing impairments and learning disabilities," Wilson said. "As our services have become stronger, we have more and more students coming to us for services."\n-- Contact staff writer Aliya \nLevinson at alevinso@indiana.edu.