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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Kurzweil 3000, is not really appropriate for this type of situation. Kurzweil is ineffective if not totally unsuitable for dealing with formalistic content and for this type of disability is not going to get you what you need.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>First option would be to try screen magnification with speech, but that is still probably not going to provide the needed level of access to the mathematical content since it still needs to be edited to get it to read write. To provide the appropriate level of equivalent access the documents are still going to need to be converted and then edited preferably with Word and MathType. That is true of all the document types you have mentioned since none of them provide adequate access to mathematics and other symbolic content.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Unfortunately there is no easy answer here. I would be more than happy to discuss this with you if you would like to contact me offline.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Ron Stewart<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>From:</span></b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'> athen-list [mailto:athen-list-bounces@mailmand13.u.washington.edu] <b>On Behalf Of </b>Alexa Schriempf<br><b>Sent:</b> Sunday, February 23, 2014 1:55 PM<br><b>To:</b> Access Technology Higher Education Network<br><b>Subject:</b> [Athen] Alternative To Kurzweil 3000 for STEM<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal>Hi All, <o:p></o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>I have a student who, due to concussions, has a visual convergence disorder in which her eyes struggle to focus on printed text and images. She is very successfully using Kurzweil 3000 to both zoom in and listen to voiceover audio. <o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>However, many of her textbooks are STEMs, and quite a few of them have scientific notation within each line of text. Our scanning services are too under-resourced to edit each line, and Kurzweil can't voice each line gracefully enough such that the student could ignore the garbled voice. Essentially, each line boils down to sounding something like, "The coefficient variable of X *garble* multiplied by the coefficient Y *garble*..." It should be saying X squared, and Y factorial. This is just a small example of the problem -- in reality, magnify this by 30 or 40 instances per page, per book. <o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>Some of her books are available in ePub, and I'm working closely with those to make them formatted and readable more fluently by Kurzweil. Others of her books however are in our most favored PDF format. With those, Kurzweil is simply not an option. I am having the student test out our CCTV to magnify the book onto a very large flat screen monitor. By increasing the size and adjusting the contrast, I am hoping that she'll be able to read the texts without inducing the usual fatigue and migraines. <o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>My question to the list: what other technologies/solutions/workarounds have been used in these situations? Voice over audio would be helpful but getting the text enlarged is most key. <o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>Thanks!<br clear=all><o:p></o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><p class=MsoNormal>-- <o:p></o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#666666'>Alexa Schriempf, Access Tech Consultant</span><o:p></o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#666666'>Office for Disability Services<br>Teaching and Learning with Technology: Accessibility Group</span><o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#666666'>Adaptive Technology Services, University Libraries<br>Penn State</span><o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><a href="https://sites.psu.edu/aschriempf/" target="_blank">https://sites.psu.edu/aschriempf/</a><o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><a href="http://equity.psu.edu/ods" target="_blank">http://equity.psu.edu/ods</a><span style='color:#666666'><br></span><a href="http://tlt.its.psu.edu/" target="_blank">http://tlt.its.psu.edu/</a><o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><a href="http://www.libraries.psu.edu/psul/adaptivetechnologies.html" target="_blank">http://www.libraries.psu.edu/psul/adaptivetechnologies.html</a><o:p></o:p></p><div><div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></body></html>