Livescribe Pen Introduction: Long Overdue

Here at SOU, we've been using the Livescribe pens extensively for the past couple of years. It's astonishing to see the difference they can make for students. You can check out details on our program, or even see a local news article, if you're so inclined. This blog post will explain a few of the basics of using the pen for taking lecture notes, so continue reading!

Creating Accessible eReader Formats: A How-To Story

A growing number of students are finding that the scalability of text size, integrated dictionary, and text-to-speech options of the Amazon Kindle and Apple's iPad are fantastic features. They also enjoy the speed of purchase, lighter physical load, and (often) lower purchase price, as do their peers. A growing number of textbooks are available in this way.

But what happens when a student with a print disability depends on those formats in order to have access to the text...and it's not available for purchase in that format? Enter Disability Resources! I'm going to focus in this post on how we create those formats in response to some colleague questions. Info on the legalities and suchlike for our students is available elsewhere.

Google Docs and Accessibility, Part 1: Documents

Here's the dealio. Google Docs, at this point, incorporates word processing documents, spreadsheets, presentations, forms, and drawings. It's a big chunk 'o stuff, and frankly, I doubt anyone's got the patience to read through a blog post that covers the accessibility of them all. Today's post will tackle just Documents, the word processing portion of Google Docs. I'll get to the others in turn. (If you have a burning desire to hear about one of them next, just drop me a note in the comments!)

Tips & Tricks in Using a Kindle for Academic Reading

With the dawn of the iPad on the scene, some people are wondering why they'd bother with a Kindle. After all, the Kindle can't play games or surf the web (ok, it can, but it's k.l.u.n.k.y.)--or at least, not yet it can't. I've posted before about Kindle accessibility and the advantages and disadvantages of a Kindle for students with disabilities. There have been several pilot programs with the Kindle for college-level reading and they have started posting their results. Examples include Reed College and Princeton University. For the sake of argument, here, let's just assume you have a Kindle, and talk about doing academic reading on one of these bad boys.

Locating Info Within the Book

I'm a very visual person. I use highlighting and margin notes in my books now in order to do one thing: remember where on the page to locate information I may want to use again. Often, I highlight quotes I may want to use in a paper, or I will write a phrase that summarizes a couple of paragraphs and include arrows or brackets. When I go back to what I was reading in order to use it, I use these visual cues to help me locate information. With a physical book, I can flip through the pages and locate what I want. Flipping through the pages is a no-can-do on the Kindle. You'll have to approach it a little differently.

While you're reading:

• Make generous use of Kindle's highlighting feature. Conventional wisdom says to highlight between 10-15% of the material in a physical book. Because you are going to use these highlights differently, shoot for 20% or so. Err on the side of highlighting more than you think you'll need.
  
• Keep the highlights relatively short. The bigger your preferred font size, the shorter you should make your highlights. The reason: when you view My Notes & Marks, where the Kindle stores your highlights, it will display between two (big font size) and size (small font size) lines of highlight. If you are trying to locate something and it's below that cutoff line, you won't see it when you're scrolling through the Notes & Marks.
• Type your notes as tags, not conventional notes. Typing on the Kindle is a bit of a, well, pain in the gluteus. The less you have to do, the easier it will be. Think of your notes as labels (tags) that will help you get back to related content. You can put multiple tags in a note, if you want. I also don't worry about capitalization or punctuation in the notes as it just slows the note entry process further. A bonus of this practice is that it encourages you to make concise (1 word!) summaries of the material you're reading, which will help your retention and comprehension. (For example, the tags I'd create for this paragraph are: tag, label, category, summary, notes, suggestions. Yours might be different from mine!)

Finding the information again:

• Search! The search feature in the Kindle is pretty darn handy. If you remember a key word or phrase (the shorter the better, by the way) that can help you locate a passage again, search for it. You can also search just your tags (notes) by typing in the search word, then moving the 5-way button to the right until it highlights 'notes'.
• View your marks. In the Menu, select "View My Notes & Marks" (one book) or in the Home screen select "My Clippings" (all your books). Because, again, I'm recommending a generous use of highlighting, there will be several pages of marks. While this is a little time-consuming to flip through, it is significantly faster than trying to remember where you saw that one thing and going through page turn after page turn in the full book. In one book I was using for my last paper, I had 72 pages of notes and marks. However, I was always able to find what I was looking for...which is kinda the point, right?
  

Citations

There's just not a lot of agreeement out there on how to cite Kindle books. The lack of real page numbers makes specific references just a bit wonky. However, the folks at the APA were kind enough to actually address citing the Kindle. For other style formats (MLA, Chicago, etc.), the consensus seems to be to consider it an online/electronic, unpaginated source. Remember, cite the version you read. If you read the Kindle, cite it. If you read the physical book, cite that. If you read it on Google Books, cite that.

Those Darn PDFs

One of the best - and worst - features of the Kindle is its ability to read PDFs. Yes, you can read PDFs natively on the Kindle with no conversion process by either sending them through Amazon's service (cheap) or connecting your Kindle to your computer with the USB cord and dragging the PDFs to the Documents folder on your Kindle (free). However, you can't annotate, change sizes, have the Kindle read it aloud, or any of the other features that make the Kindle such a good reader. I'm going to let you in on a secret that will make this easier... shhh, lean in a little closer....

Go download Calibre.

Free. Open source. End of problem. Wish I'd discovered this three terms ago when I first got my Kindle.

How to Accommodate a Person with Sight

Huge disclaimer: I didn't write this. But oh.... I wish I had. It's been around for quite awhile, but will probably be new to a number of readers of this blog. In honor of Disability Awareness in Employment Month, I am proud to present:

What to do when you meet a sighted person

People who use their eyes to acquire information about the world are called sighted people, or "people who are sighted". Legal sight means any visual acuity greater than 20/200 in the better eye without correction, or an angle of vision wider than 20 degrees.

Sighted people enjoy rich and full lives, working, playing, and raising families. They run businesses, hold public offices, get arrested, and teach your children!

How do Sighted People get Around?

People who are sighted may walk or ride public transportation, but most choose to travel long distances by operating their own motor vehicles, usually one passenger to a car. They have gone through many hours of extensive training to learn the rules of the road in order to further their independence. Once that road to freedom has been mastered, sighted people earn a legal classification, and a driver’s license, which allows them to operate a private vehicle relatively safely and independently.

How do you Assist a Sighted Person?

Sighted people are accustomed to viewing the world in visual terms. This means that in many situations they will not be able to communicate orally, and may resort to stammering, pointing, hand-waving, or other gesturing. Subtle facial expressions may also be used to convey feelings in social situations. Calmly alert the sighted person to his or her surroundings by speaking slowly, in a normal tone of voice. Questions directed at the sighted person help focus attention back on the verbal, rather than the merely visual.

How do Sighted People Remember Things?

Often they don't remember things. In fact, this is one of the most painful aspects of the visual affliction, the degree to which sight inhibits detailed memory. Often, the sighted person must reacquire the same information each time it is needed. You can help by being sensitive to their struggle, and by learning to anticipate their needs and providing them with the information they seek when it is necessary. Don't tell them too much too quickly. Be sensitive to the capacities of the individual with whom you are dealing. These limitations vary from person to person, and it is deeply upsetting to a sighted person to realize that you recognize their mental short comings.

At times, sighted people may need help finding things, especially when operating a motor vehicle. Your advance knowledge of routes and landmarks, bumps in the road, and traffic lights, will assist the sighted person in finding their way quickly and easily. Your knowledge of building layouts can also assist the sighted person in navigating complex shopping malls and office buildings. Sighted people tend to be very proud, and are reluctant to ask for assistance. Be gentle, yet firm.

How do Sighted People use Computers?

The sighted person relies exclusively on visual information. His or her attention span fades quickly when reading long texts, so it is best to write in bulleted lists of very brief items. The use of bright colors will help the sighted person stay focused. Computer information is presented to the sighted in a graphical manner to assist them in comprehending their world. Coordination of hands and eyes is often a preoccupation with sighted people, so the computer mouse, a handy device that slides along the desk top, saves sighted people from having to learn confusing keystrokes. With one button, the sighted person can move around his or her computer screen quickly and easily, if not necessarily efficiently. People who are sighted are generally not accustomed to synthetic speech, and may have great difficulty understanding even the clearest synthesizer- falling asleep between syllables, or becoming distracted by a spot on the carpet. Be patient, and be prepared to explain many times how your computer works.

How do Sighted People Read?

Reading is accomplished by the sighted person through a system called "print," which is a series of images drawn in a two dimensional plane. People who are sighted generally have a poorly developed sense of touch. Braille is completely foreign to them, and severe bouts of disorientation can sometimes result from over exposure to the use of the higher senses.

Sighted people cannot function well in dimly lit conditions, and are generally completely helpless, and often devastatingly frightened in total darkness. Their homes are usually very brightly lit (at great expense), as are businesses that cater to the sighted. Naturally, these costs are passed on to the consumer.

How can I Support the Sighted Person?

People who are sighted do not want your charity. They want to live, work, and play alongside you on as equal a basis as possible. You must ignore their tendency to display feelings that they are superior to you. Failing to allow them this delusion may promote aberrant and antisocial behavior. The best thing you can do to support sighted people in your community is to simply open yourself to their world, and help open their limited world to the bounty of your experience. These citizens are vital contributing members of the community, real people with thoughts and feelings, hopes and dreams, and a story to tell. Take a sighted person to lunch today and make them feel like you truly care.

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