Microphone/Trackball mouse
The Philip's Speechmike has a microphone, speaker, and trackball mouse with trigger style buttons. It has a long cord with a USB connection. It can be used with voice recognition software.
Hands-free camera mouse
The smartnav is a hands-free mouse that uses a camera to track the movement of a small reflective dot that can be worn on the eyeglasses, hat, knee, or other body part. The user moves the mouse across the screen by moving the body part and then executes clicks by either dwelling on the area (keeping the mouse in that spot for a set amount of time) or by using a switch.
TTY
A TTY (Teletypewriter) is a device that allows deaf, hard-of-hearing, or speech impaired people to communicate over the phone with another TTY user by keying in responses and reading what the other person types back.
Reading Edge
The Reading Edge is a stand-alone unit that can scan and read documents out loud. Users can listen with headphones or plug into a recorder. The Reading Edge can be found in both the Anchorage and the Valdez Consortium Libraries.
Do you need instructions for how to use the Reading Edge?
Magnification
In addition to the adaptive software that is loaded on our adaptive computing stations to allow for magnification, we also have free standing CCTV units. There are Alladin Magnifiers in the Library, LRC, and DSS Adaptive Computing Lab. Additionally, there are small handheld magnifiers such as the Quick Look that can be checked out on a first-come first-served basis for a semester at a time.
Portable Scanners
The Canon LiD is a portable flatbed scanner that can be used with laptop computers.
Adaptive Computing Station Scanners
The Fujitsu 4220 is a duplex medium speed scanner with a flatbed and document feeder.
MP3 players
By using a portable player, students who use alternate format materials can listen to digital audio files of their textbooks being read out loud while away from a computer.
CD Based Players
Digital audio files can be burned to CD and accessed from a CD or DVD player that supports MP3 files.
Mini Players
These can be very small, the size of a keychain. The unit itself plugs into the USB port on a computer so files can be uploaded from a computer. Many students use adaptive computing stations to convert text files into sound files, then upload both the text and sound files to the player. This way the user can listen on the go, then transer the files to another computer or storage device later on.
Advanced Players
These players have all kinds of features. They typically have internal hard drives to store massive amounts of data and tend to feature menu systems that display contents on screens.
Tactile Representations
DSS can produce Braille. There are stations in the DSS Lab that are equipped with Duxbury and Dancing Dots. For graphics, there are different approaches, one of which is to create raised line drawings.
The tactile image enhancer exposes flexi-paper to heat, causing it to swell. A special type of paper is run through a standard office copier then exposed to heat and the copied image then raises up. The pages are passed through the enhancer in a matter of seconds.
Sewell Raised Line Drawing Kits are also available. The kit contains thin sheets of plastic, a rubber covered clipboard, and an inkless ballpoint pen type stylus. Raised line drawings are created by either tracing or drawing freehand.
