Casting nets in the waters of adaptive technology

ABSTRACT

In the ever-evolving world of technology, as we make changes and implementations, we often overlook the disabled minority in our society. We here at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) strive to meet the needs of ALL students to include those with disabilities, in order to assist them in achieving their academic endeavors.Our paper provides a greater understanding of the legal responsibilities we have to the disabled student as well as, shares our approach to providing outstanding customer service to students with disabilities. This paper addresses providing face-to-face assistance to students and meeting the needs of the larger population by solving World Wide Web accessibility issues. We take an in depth look at Adaptive Technology to include information regarding hardware and software currently utilized by our University, along with the varying degrees and types of disabilities each one accommodates.Many people have a tendency to tip toe around the disabled making them feel different or even discriminated against. This paper therefore addresses the training of Computer Lab staff in working with the disabled. It is not only important to know the hardware and the software, but also the proper way to deliver the assistance.

REFERENCES

• 1: Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act - www.section508.gov
• 2: Zoomtext - www.aisquared.com
• 3: Job Access with Speech (JAWS) for Windows - www.freedomscientific.com
• 4: Dragon Naturally Speaking - www.scansoft.com
• 5: Duxbury - www.duxburysystems.com
• 6: Americans with Disabilities Act - www.ada.gov

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  B. Hardware
  B.4 INPUT/OUTPUT AND DATA COMMUNICATIONS
      B.4.2 Input/Output Devices

General Terms:
Human Factors, Legal Aspects

Keywords:
adaptive technology (ADT), adaptive technology specialist (ATS), americans with disabilities act (ADA), assistive technology (AST), braille, disability, special needs, student computing services (SCS)