Daisy and Real Player
The DSS office subscribes to Recording For the Blind and Dyslexic (RFB&D) to acquire books on CD for students. These CD's can only be played using EaseReader or Real Player software. EaseReader is installed on all three computers in the Assistive Technology Lab, and portable Daisy/EaseReader players (to be used within the library) can be checked out at the circulation desk. Real Player can be downloaded for personal use from http://www.real.com/.
Dragon Naturally Speaking
This program is a voice to text program. After training the program to recognize your speech it is able to type what you speak. This program is useful for students who are physically unable to type and also to help students who are not proficient spellers recognize the correct spelling of words they are using.
Jaws (Job Access with Speech)
Specifically for windows, this program works by speaking everything that is typed or that the cursor moves over. In this way a person can efficiently navigate a computer even with complete vision loss
Kurzweil
Originally designed like JAWS, current versions include many extras for students with learning disabilities as well.
Readplease and Mathtalk
Similar to JAWS, Readplease is a free program available for students who need assistance with reading. Books that are recorded onto CD are most commonly read through the Readplease program. Readplease is also useful if you are creating a document and need to hear it out loud in order to better edit the document. Mathtalk is able to read symbols and numbers. To download a free version of Readplease please visit their website http://readplease.com.
Reliant Magnifier
The Reliant Magnifier can make it eaiser to read of a wide variety of printed materials by magnifying materials from 3x to 50x. Simply place the material on the movable slide table and adjust the magnification level to your comfort.
The Assistive Technology Lab at PLU is located in the northeast corner of Mortvedt Library. Currently three computers are available with a variety of specialized software programs. To log on to these computers, students need to obtain the username and password from the DSS office. Headphones needed for certain programs can be checked out at the circulation desk. Below is a list of programs currently available in the Assistive Technology Lab.