WHAT IS ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY?

Assistive Technology is equipment and software designed to address the special needs of persons with disabilities such as hearing, visual, learning, mobility, etc. in order to assist them in the learning processes of higher education and/or career management. Northern Virginia Community College is dedicated to providing equal opportunity to all persons in pursuing higher education, with assistive technology being one the avenues that can be used to assist those students for which there is a need.

WHAT KIND OF ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY IS AVAILABLE AT NOVA?

The following is a list of equipment and software currently in use at all campuses with the exceptions noted. Click on the logos for further information from the company.

ALPHASMART 3000 - A simple, portable computer that is compatible with Macintosh or PC and most printers. Users can type, edit and electronically store text and practice keyboarding without being at a computer. The text can be transferred to any computer for formatting or printed directly to a printer.

BIG KEYS PLUS - An alternative keyboard that has large, one-inch, easily readable, square keys (4x bigger than keys on standard keyboards). Includes a switch that can easily convert the keyboard from the standard "QWERTY" layout to an easy-to-use ABC layout.

BLAZER - A small, quiet, and lightweight Braille embosser that also doubles as a speech synthesizer. (Alexandria/Annandale)

COMFORT KEYBOARD - A true ergonomic keyboard designed with sections that separate and are totally adjustable into an infinite number of positions to meet the unique needs of each individual.

DRAGON NATURALLY SPEAKING - A flexible, discrete speech recognition system that allows you to speak to your computer naturally and at a normal pace to create, edit, format, and move text in virtually any Windows application. It allows you to operate your PC totally hands-free with voice commands and mouse control.

DUXBURY BRAILLE - A translation software program that allows anyone who may or may not be Braille literate to translate text to Braille. The program displays the Braille translation prior for review and allows the user to select a line of Braille and see the text. After review, the Braille file can be saved and printed with a normal page printer or embossed on a Braille printer. A normal page printer will not produced raised dots, but will produce raised dot like images which are useful for sighted individuals to review the Braille output. (Alexandria/Annandale)

DVORAK KEYBOARD - An ergonomic alternative to the keyboard layout commonly found on typewriters and computers known as "Qwerty", originally designed in the 1870s to accommodate the slow mechanical movement of early typewriters. The Dvorak has the most used consonants on the right side of the home row, and the vowels on the left side of the home row. It is designed to facilitate keying in a back-and-forth motion; (right hand, then left hand, then right, etc. (Loudoun)

FM LISTENING DEVICE - Provides amplification to give wireless hearing improvement for mild hearing losses in the 10 to 40 db range. Requires a presenter (instructor) to wear a transmitter with a small microphone.

FOUR TRACK PLAYER/RECORDER - Allows recording and playback of books on four tracks in order to maximize the amount of tape space used when producing a cassette; providing up to four hours of material on each tape. CDrom players are now available for new books that are being processed in CDrom format.

FRANKLIN SPEAKING DICTIONARY & THESAURUS - A speaking electronic dictionary and thesaurus with an 8-line display. View definitions, synonyms, antonyms, and related words and hear them pronounced.

HEADMOUSE - A device that translates the movements of a user's head into directly proportional movements of the computer mouse pointer. It replaces the standard desktop computer mouse for people who cannot use their hands. (Alexandria/Annandale)

INSPIRATION® - A visual learning software tool used to develop ideas and organize thinking. Inspiration is used for a wide variety of visual learning activities including concept mapping, webbing, and the use of graphical organizers; planning and organizing student projects and administrative tasks; brainstorming; and pre-writing.

JAWS - A versatile and powerful screen reader that enables blind or visually-impaired Windows based operating system users to extensively navigate the Internet, work in MS Office Suite, Corel office programs, presentation software, and most popular computer applications. Includes multi-lingual voice synthesizer training tapes.

KENSINGTON EXPERT TRACKBALL MOUSE - A symmetrically, 4 extra-large button mouse designed to fit the shape of any hand for easier control and movement of the cursor.

KURZWEIL 3000 SCAN AND READ - An innovative PC-based reading system that helps people with learning and reading difficulties improve reading speed and comprehension.

CLOSED CAPTION (CCTV) - Provides magnification of text in both color and black and white. (Alexandria, Loudoun, Woodbridge)

OPEN BOOK - If you are blind or have low vision, Open Book can help you read any printed document. It turns a computer with a sound card and a scanner into a complete reading machine. The printed text is placed on the scanner that takes a picture of the page. The Open Book software then translates that picture back into words and reads those words aloud.

ORION TI-34 TALKING SCIENTIFIC CALCULATOR - A powerful, lightweight, pocket size calculator based on the popular TI-34 from Texas Instruments, with over 95 scientific functions including statistics and trigonometry.

SOFTYPE - A software utility which replaces the functionality of a standard keyboard with a full featured on-screen keyboard which can be accessed using a mouse or mouse emulator such as the HeadMouse. (Alexandria/Annandale)

SPACE SAVER KEYBOARD - A desk model space saver keyboard that is 60% the size of standard 101-key keyboards. (Alexandria/Annandale)

TELECOMMUNICATIONS DEVICE FOR THE DEAF (TDD) - Has direct telephone line connection that lets the hearing impaired dial and answer calls from the keyboard. NVCC has several stand alone units at each campus and one installed per campus to be used with a payphone.

ZOOMTEXT XTRA!- An adaptive software for people of low vision that seamlessly integrates magnification, screen reading, and scanning with OCR. It includes DocReader, a full-screen environment for reading text from any Windows application or scanned document.

HOW CAN YOU OBTAIN THESE SERVICES?

1. You must be a registered student at NOVA.
2. You must identify yourself as having a disability and are in need of services to a disability services counselor on the campus in which you are enrolled.