[Athen] Network Enabled Assistive Technology in a Campus Environment

[Borg,Douglas]

Hello everyone,
 
I am currently planning out a move to network based management and
deployment of assistive technology here at Colorado State University.
Currently, we mostly have single user or single seat licenses for
software installed on a handful of AT stations dispersed among most of
the computer labs across campus.  I am hoping to change that and move to
more network-based solutions including:
 
1. Implementing Roaming Profiles for AT user accounts.
2. Using the students roaming profile to store as many AT application
settings and files as possible.
3. Using a network license server to manage licenses for Jaws, WYNN,
ZoomText (Or possibly MAGic), and Inspiration.
4. Storing AT application installation files on a central server so I
can remotely install more specialized applications as they are needed
and set up GPO's and silent installs to install and update more common
software automatically.
5. Generally better manage the AT stations across campus using Active
Directory as much as possible.
6. A further goal of mine is to have basic AT software (mentioned in #3)
installed on most, if not all, college computers. (This would be pursued
if/when I can get the other goals taken care of on the current number of
AT stations)
 
I am posting here because I would like to get some advice/ideas/options
for this. Specifically I'd like to know:
 
How did you set up and how do you manage your AT systems on campus? 
Are you doing / Have you tried any of the above on your network? 
What works? 
What doesn't?
Most importantly of all: Am I crazy? (See below)
 
Obviously, some solutions are very dependent on the network environment.
Here is a little bit about the CSU network, the AT here, and my
situation:
 
Every student, staff, and faculty member has a user account in the root
COLOSTATE domain (called their eID). In addition, each college and even
some departments have their own domain that they manage independently
and use to provide services to their faculty and students.  This means
that a student can have multiple accounts that are not linked in any way
and each account has specific and separate permissions and services.
Many of the University's computer labs are managed by the individual
colleges.  At this time there is no central place to keep track of or
manage AT user accounts or computers; they all belong to different
colleges and domains.  Adding roaming profiles to the root COLOSTATE
user account presents some problems such as the inability (or immense
difficulty) of users to access college-specific resources such as file
shares and college-purchased software.  Creating a separate ATRC
(Assistive Tech Resource Center) domain is not possible at this time as
there is nobody to manage it (I am the only IT person here and I work
15-20 hours a week) and we would have to purchase, install, and manage a
server to act as the domain controller.  We currently have a server
(that is being under-utilized at the moment) that is designated for AT
use only and managed very graciously by our library and it belongs to
the library's domain, MORGAN.  This server manages licenses and provides
other services for the 5 AT stations in the library.  This would be the
server I would use for license management, user profile storage and
application install storage.
 
Please let me know what you think.  I deeply appreciate any help you can
give.
 
Douglas Borg
Assistive Technology Support Specialist - IT 
Assistive Technology Resource Center (ATRC)
Department of Occupational Therapy
Colorado State University
(970) 491-0625
F: (970) 491-6290
<mailto:tumans at cahs.colostate.edu> dborg at cahs.colostate.edu
<mailto:dborg at cahs.colostate.edu>  
www.colostate.edu/depts/ATRC/ 
 
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