Assistive Technology Overview There is a variety of assistive technology that students with disabilities can be approved to use. Examples of assistive technology: Lecture recording/note-taking devices or programs Text-to-speech software Speech-to-text software Grammar and Spell Checking program Adaptive equipment Note-Taking Devices Audacity is a free, open source, cross-platform software program available for download onto your laptop that allows you to record and edit sounds. Audacity is available for Windows®, Mac®, GNU/Linux®; and other operating systems. Evernote is a free downloadable program that facilitates notes organization and sharing. A Livescribe Pen is a pen with built-in audio recording capability that pairs with special computer dot matrix notebooks to record everything you hear, say and write, while linking your audio recordings to your notes. You can save recorded lecture notes and your accompanying pencasts (notes written in the special computer dot matrix notebook) directly to your computer by uploading your notes to Livescribe’s Echo Desktop software. You can replay audio directly from the accompanying computer dot matrix notebook paper by tapping on your notes or you can play back interactive notes from your Mac or Windows computer once you have uploaded your notes into the Echo Desktop software. There are a various versions of the pen available for about $180 plus costs for notebooks, ink nibs and accessories. Disability Services has a small inventory of Livescribe pens that students with appropriate accommodations can borrow. Sonocent Audio Notetaker or Glean is a program that costs approximately $150 for a one year license. This program records lecture/discussion while allowing you to type notes or just listen to lecture. Later, you can go back to your saved audio note files and add in typed text notes, and/or import images into your recorded note files. You can chunk notes and annotate your notes with color blocking features. You can use your Android or iOS Smartphone or tablet to record lecture using the program. Free trials are available from Sonocent. Text-to-Speech Software Natural Reader is a free to download, free to use software program that enables you to listen to PDF files, webpages, e-books, e-textbooks, and word documents on your computer. Natural Reader has all the basic text-to-speech functions and is available for both the Mac and PC platforms. VoiceDream is an iOS App for the iPad, iPhone, or iPod compatible with iOS 6.0 or later. This App costs approximately $15. Read & Write is a text-to-speech software program with additional writing and study skills tools to assist students with language based disabilities with reading and writing. This program can also read DAISY Books aloud and the DAISY Reader includes support for MathML and Open University, and for books created using the DAISY Plug-in. GCC has a site license for this program and provides it to students for free. Speakit! is a free Google Chrome App that allows the user to cut and paste text from their search engine into Speakit’s text-to-speech “read aloud” box. Speech-to-Text Software Windows Speech Recognition is free speech recognition software that works on the Windows operating system. Dictation is the free, built-in speech-to-text program available for Mac’s operating system OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion or later. If running Mountain Lion, the user must be connected to the internet in order for the dictation feature to work. Grammar and Spellchecking Software Ginger is a downloadable program that provides grammar and spell checking functions of your documents. It is available in the lite version as a free program. Grammarly is a free, downloadable program that checks your grammar, spelling, and vocabulary choice; errors that are often missed by Microsoft Word. LanguageTool is a free open source proof-reading program that you can cut and paste your writing into to check for grammar and spelling errors.