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Margaret Londergan, Manager
Adaptive Technology Center
Indiana University
Reading programs have been in existence for some time
providing the possibility of converting printed text to
electronic text. But the scanning process was time consuming and
frequently produced inaccurate results. After struggling with
this for a year and realizing that few students adopted this
strategy for accessing printed material, I developed a program
for very high speed electronic text preparation that has received
a lot of attention. Using the system I devised students can have
their textbooks turned into electronic text in about an hour
(depending on the size of the book). This removes the tedium of
scanning for the student and permits them to focus on the
material itself.
The program has been extremely popular with students and
includes a software checkout program so that the students can get
up and running with their reading assistance program as soon as
possible. The checkout program gives the student an opportunity
to evaluate software before having to purchase it. The loaner
program works well; it is easy for the students to get started.
And once they realize how useful the reading program is in
conjunction with the rapidly prepared electronic text they
quickly become adopters in most cases.
By using the high-speed scanning method scanning errors are
reduced significantly from those incurred when scanning page by
page on a flat bed scanner. The text provided to the students in
electronic format is more readable by a variety of applications.
(We use Kurzweil 3000, Jaws for Windows with both speech and
refreshable Braille, ZoomText and others.
Students drop their books off and a day latter (or less if the
Adaptive Technology Center isn’t busy) they pick up their
book and a CD with the book on it in electronic text format.
Students who previously gave up because of the tedium of scanning
are eagerly using the e-text/reading assistance program. Many
have reported that this program has enabled them to improve their
grades. Parents of these students have expressed their gratitude
for a program that does as much as this one to remove the
barriers to academic success faced by their sons or
daughters.
In my presentation I will outline the details of the
Scan/Read/Achieve program including:
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