Thursday, July 6, 2006

Welcome to the AT @ SOU Blog!

Welcome to the first post of the AT @ SOU blog! Expect updates weekly-ish once a month, depending on what’s going on and what’s new.

I’m hoping to use this blog to discuss aspects of assistive/adaptive technology in general and at Southern Oregon University in particular. We’ve got a lot of great stuff here!

In other new things, DSS just received 20 AlphaSmarts to add to our inventory. These great little word processors are light (only 2 pounds), quick, run about 700 hours on just 3AA batteries, and are extremely durable. I once had a rather large 8th grader deliberately sit on one, and it still worked fine! Some students have used these to take notes in class - great for when manipulating a pencil is difficult.
We are now offering the free use of AlphaSmarts to our volunteer notetakers! Notetakers can check out an AlphaSmart for - surprise - taking notes in class. They can then quickly and easily transmit those notes electronically. No more coming in to the ACCESS Center to use the photocopier. Students receiving the notes benefit too, as they won’t need to physically come in to retrieve their notes.