Accessibility

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If there has ever been a time in your life where you have been injured or unable to perform your normal, day-to-day operations, you know how important it is to have an assistive device. The NC State population is very diverse and this includes those with disablities. NC State acknowledges that these students are here to learn just like everyone else, but may need a little aid. North Carolina State University is committed to providing an inclusive environment for all students. This commitment takes a proactive approach to providing accessibility to its information resources, including Web pages and online content.

To accommodate access to information technology resources for a student with a disability, the office of Disability Student Services (DSS) offers a range of assistive technologies and devices. Assistive technologies are a software and/ or hardware devices that accommodate functional limitations or increase functional capabilities of a person with a disability. Examples of assistive technologies used to accommodate access to computers and information resources are highlighted below.

Blindness

Screen readers, braille input/output, scanners/OCR, voice output

Low vision

Screen magnification software, large monitors, CCTV

Deaf or hard of hearing

Visual signals mapping computer sound alerts

Orthopedic/motor

Speech recognition, alternative input devices (keyboard and mouse), word prediction

Learning disablities

Voice output, scanning/OCR/visual tracking/readers, word prediction

Assistive Technology

Many assistive technologies are deployed around campus and the students can access them in the following manner:

• Student computing labs across campus
• Assistive Technology Center at D.H. Hill Library
• Loaned to them as a part of their academic accommodation from the DSS office
• Computer lab at the DSS office

For more information about the IT Accessibility Initiative visit, http://www.ncsu.edu/it/access/

This relationship provides disabled students with Assistive Technology. Assistive technology is a product, system, or piece of equipment designated to aid a disabled person. A piece of assistive technology can be anything as simple as a computer scanner to something as complex as a braile input/output device.

A few further examples of what constitute assistive technology are:

• screen readers
• alternate keyboards/mice
• screen magnification software
• word prediction software
• large monitors
• customized contrast on monitors

NC State provides its students with all of these services and more should they be in need of assitance.

If you desire more information, feel free to visit the Assistive Technology home page. Here, they will be able to answer any further question you may have regarding Disability Services for Students.

Assistive Software

The following assistive software is available on our computers:

• JAWS for Windows
• ZoomText for Windows
• gmag for Linux
• Emacspeak for Linux

Here are some additional links to Accessibility webpages:

Microsoft Accessibility - Tools to adjust the look and feel of Windows for people with disabilities (such as color scheme and font size)

Narrator - Screen reader for people who can't see, can't see well, or can't read

Magnifier - Magnifies around the pointer for people who can't see well

On-Screen Keyboard - Provides an on-screen keyboard for people who can't use a keyboard (poor fine motor skills).