WebJunction

Sherry Gelbwasser (MLS, Ph.D.) of the Asnuntuck Community College in Enfield developed this project in order to update the services available to the constituents of Asnuntuck's Learning Resource Center: students, faculty, staff, administrators, and community borrowers.

Gelbwasser worked with the college's Academic Skills Center (which offers tutoring and academic assistance to students) to double the number of adaptive technology computers available on campus for more than twenty individuals known to use and need this technology.  The larger campus population has 65 other people with various disabilities and/or challenges who, while not among the primary targets of the project, also utilize the equipment.

Funds provided one Dell Pentium IV computer workstation, a laser jet printer, a HP Scanjet 8200 color flatbed scanner, and one Tracker 2000 hands-free mouse. 

Software included the Kurzweil 3000 software package, Dragon Naturally Speaking (v. 8.0) voice recognition software, and ZoomText Magnifier/ScreenReader software.

Other equipment included a Uniphone (voice/TTY) telephone and two Smith brand "The Works" height adjustable workstations.  Additionally, an Optelec Clearview 517XL Color hand-held video CCTV magnifier and three handheld magnifiers were provided.

This project supplements equipment currently in place: two closed circuit televisions, a Connecticut Radio Information Service (CRIS) receiver and a photocopier with an image enlargement function. 

Orientation and training sessions for the equipment, software, and hardware were held for staff and the users of the Learning Resource Center; two informational articles were published in local papers, and an informational flyer was posted around campus.

Users of equipment noted the learning curve associated with using the most commonly used software, Dragon Naturally Speaking, so staff created a print aid for the product.  Additionally, background noise in the library aggravated accuracy problems with this speech-to-text product.

See also Asnuntuck's own page on this adaptive technology project. Final budget: $9,293 LSTA; $2,646 match.

 
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