Assistive Technology Offered and Common Accommodations
Receiving accommodations should not be regarded as giving a student special privileges, but rather as minimizing the impact of a disability to the greatest extent possible. It is important to remember that the professor expects the same academic performance from students with disabilities as he or she does from non-disabled students. The intent of the ADA and Section 504 is not that professors pass students because of their disability. The intent is to assure that each student with a disability receives the academic adjustments, also known as accommodations, needed to assure that he or she has the same access to college programs, classes, and facilities as all other students.
In providing an academic adjustment, the college is not required to (1) lower or effect substantial modifications to essential class or program requirements or, (2) make modifications that would alter the nature of a service, program, or activity, or (3) provide services that would result in undue financial or administrative burdens.
- Modified Testing: e.g.; extended testing time in a proctored setting - (generally time and a half), a verbatim text reader (either human or computer), a scribe, alternatives to scantron testing, use of a calculator in advanced math courses
- Student Note-taker
- Use of an Alpha Smart solely for purposes of taking notes
- Ability to record lectures
- Preferential seating
- Assistive technology
- Handouts in enlarged font size
- Books in alternative formats, including audio, enlarged, and electronic files
- Alternative format handouts
- American Sign Language Interpreters
- Liaison service with community agencies, including Michigan Rehabilitation Services
- Other specialized services as deemed necessary following an assessment of the student’s special needs
- Kurzweil Reader software (text to voice) both within the Tutoring Center and to loan
- Dragon Naturally software (voice to text)
- JAWSS for Windows (screen reader)
- An institutional membership in Learning Ally
- Loan of equipment to access audio books
- Electronic text files for required books and for elective books whenever possible
- Raised Line Drawing Kit
- Reading Pens
- Hand-held spell checker
- Amplified stethoscopes
- CD players for books on tape
- TDD telephone
- Williams Sound System – FM Listening System
- Alpha Smart players
- Language Translators for students whose primary language is not English
- Headphones with microphones
- Ear plugs
- Hand-held Magnifiers
- Optional full-spectrum lighting or low level lighting in tutoring/testing rooms
- Accessible computers throughout STaRS
- Irlen Colored Overlays
- Other equipment and software based on each student’s needs