Stellenbosch University, a public research university located in the Western Cape Province of South Africa, has taken the initiative to expand their academic support services by using assistive learning technologies as a tool to promote disability inclusion.
In past years students with print disabilities relied on university resource units, non-profit organizations or even volunteers to provide access to their academic texts. Fortunately, this is changing for the better.
Libraries provide us with a vast resource of knowledge whereby a student can access books, journals, periodicals, newspapers and other learning resources. To make the library inclusive ensures that persons with disabilities have equal access to both the physical and digital library.
Websites, Learning Management Systems, online Libraries and any information distributed through the internet needs to be easy to use for everyone including learners with disabilities.
Educational institutions have the responsibility of ensuring that all learners including persons with disabilities have equal access to all facilities and services. Technology can play a role in accommodating different disabilities.
Persons with print disabilities cannot read hard copy book or photo-copy sheets or digital text stored as an image. These materials need to be converted into editable digital text documents to make them readable by persons with print disabilities on their devices.
Even though sight-reading is what most people think of when they think of reading, there are two other types of reading: reading through touch—using Braille to access text, and reading through audio —listening to narrated content or using computer generated text-to-speech.
Learners with disabilities need different tools for taking notes in a class or writing in examinations.
Read Aloud is a accessibility feature that uses text-to-speech (TTS) technology to convert text to audio. Read-aloud feature benefits learners with low vision, and is often used by those with specific learning disabilities such as dyslexia.
Read Aloud is a accessibility feature that uses text-to-speech (TTS) technology to convert text to audio. Read-aloud feature benefits learners with low vision, and is often used by those with specific learning disabilities such as dyslexia.
