[Athen] Kurzweil vs Texthelp? Or both?

[Normajean.Brand]

Hey Wink!
Thank you for your insight! I will keep that in mind. Especially when to implement if we change apps. I think we signed a new contract with Kurzweil in August last year and switching to something else wasn’t budgeted for this year, so it will likely be 2023 before anything really happens.

NJ

From: athen-list <athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu> On Behalf Of foreigntype at gmail.com
Sent: Friday, February 18, 2022 1:59 PM
To: Access Technology Higher Education Network <athen-list at u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: [Athen] Kurzweil vs Texthelp? Or both?

NJ & ATHEN-ites,
it's pretty expensive to maintain licenses for both Kurzweil and Read & Write. While I was working at Southern Oregon University, we decided to switch from Kurzweil to Read & Write. We decided it was too much of a jolt for students to have to learn a new learning enhancement software part of the way through their academic career, so we grandfathered in students who are currently using Kurzweil and gradually phased out the license over the course of a couple of years.

Something to consider, in any case.
Wink Harner
Accessibility Consultant/Alternative Text Production
The Foreign Type
Portland OR
foreigntype at gmail.com<mailto:foreigntype at gmail.com>
480-984-0034
This email was dictated using Dragon NaturallySpeaking. Please forgive quirks, misrecognitions, or errata .


On Fri, Feb 18, 2022 at 9:00 AM Normajean.Brand <normajean.brand at hccs.edu<mailto:normajean.brand at hccs.edu>> wrote:
Hello all, and Happy Friday!
I’m curious to find out how many of you offer both Kurzweil and TextHelp, or only one of the apps. We started out being a WYNN college but moved to Kurzweil 3000 when WYNN was no longer being updated. I did a pilot of TextHelp a long time ago (2001?), and although I liked it, I couldn’t get any traction on it from students or anyone else, so we stayed with Kurzweil. However, with the many advancements that TextHelp especially reading Math, I’m leaning towards TextHelp and we’re already looking at EquatIO.
Is there justification for both apps? We’ve never had more than 50 students using Kurzweil at any time, and usually it’s closer to maybe 7 actively using it during any semester, since we started offering Kurzweil in 2005. I know there are probably many more that could benefit from using either app when looking at how many students are registered with our Disability Services.
Thoughts?
Thank you for your time,
NJ

NJ Brand, BAAS-Psych, ATAC
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