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Volume 2, Issue 1 -- Spring/Summer Quarter, 2003
By Pleasance Brown
Congratulations to the staff members of WorkAbility IV Team: you have done it for the 10th year in a row! WorkAbility IV is a service that provides students with disabilities the opportunity to work, and be challenged in the world and to be competitive with others in all professional fields.
The WorkAbility IV program here at CSUSB, is led by its Director Laurie Flynn with a strong supporting cast of Dr. Theron Pace, Amanda Spivey, Ruth Howell, Larry Cummins, Naomi Schmierer, and the full support of the office of Services to Students with Disabilities, Assistive Computing Resource Center, and the Career Development Center.
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The State of California Department of Rehabilitation, wanting to help people with disabilities at every educational and business level, created the WorkAbility Program. This program started out small but has grown statewide.
The CSUSB campus celebrated this milestone with an Anniversary Reception on May 7, 2003. This event was put on to thank the many countless individuals who took the time to make this day and the WorkAbility IV Program what it is today. The staff here at WorkAbility IV would like to extend a special thanks to the faculty and staff here at CSUSB.
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by Leon McNaught
Nextalk.net is an Internet-based, Live Text Communication system that allows users to communicate via TTY. As a member of NexTalk.net, you have many state-of-the-art text-based communication features available at your fingertips, and best of all its free.
A TTY, also known as a TDD (Telecommunications Device for the Deaf), is a device that allows users to type characters into a machine that are then turned into electrical signals. After traveling over traditional telephone lines the signals are converted back into letters which appear on a display screen. There are approximately four million TTY users nationwide. Three million of these users are hearing impaired and the remaining one million have severe speech impairments.
For more on this free service visit http://www.nextalk.net/
by Leon McNaught
Whether you have a disability that needs speech recognition technology to optimize PC use, or you are just someone who is on the forefront of technology, you will be impressed by the features and accuracy of Dragon NaturallySpeaking 7.
Users can dictate into virtually any windows-based application at speeds of up to 160 words per minute. Dragon NaturallySpeaking 7 boasts one of the largest accuracy increases of any Dragon NaturallySpeaking release - up to 15% more accurate than the previous version. Users can achieve accuracy as high as 99%.
Dragon 7 automatically inserts periods and commas when you dictate. This feature is ideal for use with casual documents like e-mails, instant messages and chats. Another exciting feature of Dragon 7 is the Vocabulary Optimizer. This feature can examine your documents for sentence structure and word use frequency, then adjust the recognition engine to match your writing patterns.
Dragon 7 Professional is the only PC Dictation application that meets Section 508 standards, established by the US government to make software accessible for people with disabilities. Dragon 7 Professional is now available at ACRC. Useful for almost everyone, Dragon 7 is much better than ever before.
by Leon McNaught
A new feature for our newsletter will focus on one individual who is a client of the ACRC and how assistive technology has helped with everyday tasks.
For our first piece we will talk to Wesley Farris. Wesley is a student at CSUSB who due to limited movement must use technology to aid in everyday simple manipulations such as checking mail or writing papers. Wesley currently uses a combination of new and old voice recognition technologies to help him accomplish his work.
Dragon Naturally Speaking allows Wesley to manipulate and interactive with all on-screen information. Dragon allows Wesley to input speech which is then translated into text for document creation or e-mail composition. Although Dragon also allows Wesley to manipulate the cursor, he prefers to use Dragon Dictate, an earlier version of this technology. Dragon dictate also works with speech, although commands are given in singular one-word commands as opposed to fluid natural speech. The advantage for some individuals to this older technology is that Dragon Dictate can recognize any sound, as long as it is consistent, as a command.
Wesley has used Dragon Dictate and more recently Naturally Speaking for almost ten years. When asked how ACRC has helped him with his college experience, Wesley mentioned his use of our mobile cart. Having our mobile cart located within one of Wesley's lab classes allowed him to overcome many of his physical limitations and concentrate on coursework. "...I will say that the mobile cart was very helpful. It made the difference between a D and a B grade in one of my classes."
Thank you to Wesley for agreeing to be the first for our ongoing feature. Also, we would like to thank Wesley for his kind words regarding the ACRC staff and his experience with our services.
You can contact Wesley via e-mail: waf037@earthlink.net
By Lois Madsen
The Financial Aid Office's new Financial Aid Information delivery system went live on March 17, 2003. Traditionally, the Financial Aid Office mails "Tracking Letters" to inform applicants about information or documents needed to complete their Financial Aid application, and "Award letters" to inform students of the details of their financial aid awards. With over 22,000 applications received each year, the cost of postage and printing of these documents was overwhelming in a tight budget year. This new system includes email notification to students to inform them that their new documents are available to view on the CSUSB FAO website. The students access the secure website to view the same documents they are accustomed to receiving in the mail. They can view, print or even email them to themselves from within the website. The students can also respond to the FAO with requests for information or to provide information to the FAO.
The first batch of emails included over 10,000 email notifications of Tracking Letters and emails being sent to students. The Financial Aid Office was awestruck at the success of the new website; it exceeded our expectations. By that same afternoon, students were delivering documents and information to the Financial Aid Office. On FAO staff member exclaimed, "Under the new system, students are responding to our requests for information, before we could have gotten the envelope into the mailroom under the old system." By April 1st, 13, 222 students had received their awards via email.
On the other hand, the FAO is aware that, despite the plethora of computer access on campus, some students are not web-savvy or may not be computer savvy. AVP of Enrollment Services, Robert McGowan, cautions that only about 68% of our potential students have access to the Internet and email. Therefore, the FAO has built several fail-safe loops into the new system, including "snail-mailing" the documents to students for whom we have no working email address. About ten percent of our applicants fall into this category.
Another fail-safe is an Auto Dialer system to be implemented in late Spring. Students who have been sent emails but who have not responded, will receive a telephone call via Auto Dialer later this month, reminding them to check the website. New students will also receive personalized attention to assure that they are "on-board" with the system and getting the information they need as new and potential students to CSUSB.
Student response has been overwhelmingly positive. The FAO has received hundreds of calls for help in using the website, but once their questions are easily answered, the students have "raved" their praises for the speed, accuracy, and accessibility of the new website.
Visit the financial aid Website at http://finaid.csusb.edu/
by Leon McNaught
Version 8 of the industry standard screen magnification program ZoomText boasts a whole gamut of improvements and features. The user interface has been redesigned to provide a more intuitive and friendly experience. As well as screen magnification, ZoomText screen reading version 8 can also perform the following tasks: complete screen reading, automatic document reading, full internet accessibility, text navigation, type and mouse echoing, and specialized support for Microsoft Office and Internet Explorer.
ZoomText allows the user to magnify on-screen information up to sixteen times the original size. This functionality alone makes ZoomText one of the most useful assistive applications. Allowing simple magnification of the screen can overcome many of the challenges associated with low vision and computer use. ZoomText version 8 is now available for purchase.
You can download a free trial version available at the developer website. The address is http://www.aisquared.com/
To find out more about ZoomText, and to read a short case study on its effectiveness visit http://www.microsoft.com/enable/casestudy/ysu.aspx
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