Integrating Assistive Technology with Library Instruction Candace Brown Digital Text Services Coordinator Landmark College Putney, VT Presented at New England Library Instruction Group Annual Conference Yale University June 4, 2010

Surprise! Were going to have a quick pop quiz!

Beneath the Surface

Notes found in paper recycling bin at Landmark College

"One in Twenty Five (UK) by Lawrence Cockrill, age11

What are the Disability Laws/Standards/Guidelines? Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of Copyright Law Amendment, 1996: PL December 1996 – Chafee Amendment Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of The ALA Disabilities Policy

Salient Points Disability Laws and ALA Disability Policy Laws provide people with disabilities with: protection from discrimination rights to equal access to information accommodations ALA Disability Policy suggests that librarians should: use strategies based on principles of universal design be aware of how available technologies address disabilities know how to assist all users with library technology The policy does have several mandates including: Library materials must be accessible to all patrons including people with disabilities.

This is a Tall Order- especially when budget cuts are abundant Where does that all leave us? How can we possibly follow even one of the suggestions from the ALA policy?

Vocalized needs to teaching librarians Observed students struggling to access and comprehend database articles Sought tools to help organize thoughts and sources throughout research process Thoughts to normalize use of assistive technologies across campus Ad Hoc Group- AT Coordinator/Educator, Librarians and Library Staff

What We Learned in the Process That we needed: Patience Empathy One VOCAL and aware person Observant teaching librarians One assistive technology person Willingness to try Persistence to keep testing and experimenting To create a wish list for ITS to install/download A good ITS trouble shooter

What we did accomplish: At every public access machine we added: Headphones CLiCk, Speak WordTalk Colorful Tabs Customized AT Icon Every Journey Begins with a Single Step

Follow Up Plan (what we still need to do) Create a library staff training plan Create a marketing strategy for AT Read/create the Librarys policy for serving people with disabilities, including learning disabilities

Free Text to Speech Options (One eared headsets were also installed) & I have started evaluating the free text to speech applications on my blog WordTalks toolbar CLiCk,Speaks toolbar

Selection of Plugins for Mozillas Firefox Note: you will not see CLiCk, Speak listed because it is an extension, not a plugin. ColorfulTabs is the plugin we installed.

Free application created by Inspiration Just for fun, check out this serious mind mapping tool Mindmapping Tools

2 TOOLS ON THE HORIZON

Readability Before After

MyStudy Bar All of the programs listed are downloaded onto one tool bar so once you download the Study Bar, you can select the ones that you wish to use at any time.

Need Help Finding Appropriate Software or Applications? 2 Great Resources 1.National Center On Universal Design for Learning UDL Guidelines - Version 1.0 > Examples and Resources

Help Resource #2 2. EdTech Solutions – Teaching Every Students Blog and wiki 2. EdTech Solutions – Teaching Every Students Blog

Lets Have Some Fun and try out some tools

References: Abell, Michael, and Preston Lewis. "Universal Design for Learning: A Statewide Improvement Model for Academic Success." Information Technology and Disabilities Vol. XI, no. 1 (August 2005). itd/itdv11n1/abell.htm (accessed June 2, 2010). Cartoon photobucket.com_ jpeg Image with Nancy Pearl Face Valenza, Joyce. Reading Getting the Gears to Work in Harmony; Tag Team – Wrestling with Teens and Technology. Wrestling with Teens and Technology. Strategies for incorporating low tech into the Library Vickers, Melana Zyla. Accommodating College Students with Learning Disabilities: ADD, ADHD, and Dyslexia. John W. Pope Center for Higher Education Policy. ISSN (accessed June 1, 2010). ALA and ACRL Information: ALA Disability Policy ALA Fact Sheet on Disability Policy Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education Standards for Libraries in Higher Education

More information on Universal Design for Learning: Video on udl More information on LD laws: Resources for finding appropriate assistive technology EdTech Solutions - Teaching Every Student EdTech Solutions - Teaching Every Student Blog UDL toolkit Wiki National Center on Universal Design for LearningNational Center on Universal Design for Learning UDL examples and references Digitaltext Blog on Wordpress Digitaltext Blog on Wordpress (a work in progress - some areas sparce) Resources, continued

Configure Firefox for all users in Windows XP If youre a college like us, still running a Novell network with lots of locked down public computers, you may have found yourself in need of customizing Mozilla Firefox for all users who may log into a computer. Since Novell will create a new Windows User for each person who logs in, the desire to be able to customize Firefox can be a great one. Its actually easier than you would think. Under the Windows User that would be your default, install all add-ins you want the users to have access to and change any settings desired in Firefox. (this includes the homepage and bookmarks) When this is done, you will just need to change the properties (by right clicking on the icon) of both Firefox icons (Desktop and Program Files) and add information below after the "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" under Target. User Account will be the name of the Windows User and profilename will be whatever Firefox assigned you when it installed. Each profilename will be unique and can be found at: C:\Documents and Settings\(windows_users_name)\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles The -profile will be C:\Documents and Settings\User Account\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\profilename.default An example of the full target will read: "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" -profile C:\Documents and Settings\User Account\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\profilename.default Now, when the next user logs in, they will have all the settings and information in Firefox that you set for your default user account!