Reading through a textbook is a chore for many students at the University of Oregon. Yet as time consuming as reading may be, it is an easy and simple task for most to complete.
But for students who have a disability such as ADHD, dyslexia or blindness, the task of reading a book can be challenging or nearly impossible. That’s where the Accessible Education Center (AEC) comes in.
The AEC’s Accessible Technology Program (ATP) is a resource at the UO that takes textbooks and translates them into a more accessible form for students to read, James Bailey, the Associate Director of the program, explained.
The program can help students in variety of ways, depending on their circumstances. Most students send in their books to be converted into PDFs. When this happens, the spines of the books are chopped off and the pages are sent through a scanner that uploads the pages to a computer, Tallen Lamoreaux, who works at the program, said. The pages are eventually rebound and returned to the students.
The PDFs can be highlighted or put through a program that reads the text out loud. This software can then be put onto a student’s  personal computer. There are some programs that can even read out loud whatever the cursors moves over or whenever a button is pressed, Bailey said.
ATP helps around 30 students a term, alternative tech specialist JT Archuleta said. The program is heavily used at the start of each term when students obtain new books. There are some instances though where a book has already been scanned through the program in the past and students are just given the files online.
“I believe in the work I do. I feel like I do something meaningful for students,” Archuleta said.
Before a student may utilize ATP, they first must get a referral from the AEC. A lot of times a student will hear of the program and go directly to ATP, Bailey said. They are turned away and asked to follow the proper protocols first before they can use the program.
A large number of students who use the program are in their junior or senior year, Archuleta said. Many of them didn’t know of the program until later in their college years or thought that their disability was minor enough that they didn’t need assistance.
“There’s a lot more resources that our school has for these students than we’d think,” Archuleta said.
Archuleta assists two blind students on campus, while Lamoreaux helps people with other, less severe disabilities. The program possesses a machine which can scan text and turn it into braille, Bailey said. While the over 20-year-old Embosser is not as heavily used as it once was, with text to audio devices becoming more prevalent, they are nonetheless still used.
Bailey hopes CD-ROM options for textbooks will become more common and advocates for websites to become more accessible to those with disabilities.
“The goal is the access of technology for people with disabilities is exactly the same as people without disabilities. And when that day comes, I will no longer be needed,” Bailey said.
For more information on the program and how to utilize it, please visit the AEC’s website.
Follow Eric Schucht on Twitter @EricSchucht