"August 1, 2011, 5:51 pm
By Rachel Wiseman
College students with very poor vision have had to struggle to see a blackboard and take notes-basic tasks that can hold some back. Now a team of four students from Arizona State University has designed a system, called Note-Taker, that couples a tablet PC and a video camera, and could be a major advance over the small eyeglass-mounted telescopes that many students have had to rely on. It recently won second place in Microsoft's Imagine Cup technology competition. (...)
The result was Note-Taker, which connects a tablet PC (a laptop with a screen you can write on) to a high-resolution video camera. Screen commands get the camera to pan and zoom. The video footage, along with audio, can be played in real time on the tablet and are also saved for later reference. Alongside the video is a space for typed or handwritten notes, which students can jot down using a stylus. That should be helpful in math and science courses, says Mr. Hayden, where students need to copy down graphs, charts, and symbols not readily available on a keyboard. (...)
But no tool can replace institutional support, says Chris S. Danielsen, director of public relations for the [NFB]. "The university is always going to have to make sure that whatever technology it uses is accessible to blind and low-vision students," he says. (Arizona State U. has gotten in hot water in the past in just this area.) (...)
This entry was posted in Gadgets."
In "(Arizona State U. has gotten in hot water in the past in just this area.)" the words "in the past" are linked to http://chronicle.com/article/Blind-Students-Demand-Access/125695/ , about a Spanish work book inaccessible to blind students, with a reference to the lawsuit against Arizona State U over the adoption of the Kindle.
So classifying this post in "Gadgets" is particularly paradoxical: in fact one reason why Arizona State U. was sued over the adoption of the Kindle was that Amazon presented its text-to-speech as a gadget.
"TITLE II - PUTTING WORKERS BACK ON THE JOB WHILE REBUILDING AND MODERNIZING AMERICA
Subtitle A - Veterans Hiring Preferences
Sec. 201. Returning Heroes and Wounded Warriors Work Opportunity Tax Credits
Subtitle B - Teacher Stabilization
Sec. 202. Purpose
Sec. 203. Grants for the Outlying Areas and the Secretary of the Interior; Availability of Funds.
Sec. 204. State Allocation
Sec. 205. State Application
Sec. 206. State Reservation and Responsibilities
Sec. 207. Local Educational Agencies
Sec. 208. Early Learning
Sec. 209. Maintenance of Effort
Sec. 210. Reporting
Sec. 211. Definitions
Sec. 212. Authorization of Appropriations
Subtitle C - First Responder Stabilization
Sec. 213. Purpose
Sec. 214. Grant Program
Sec. 215. Appropriations
Subtitle D - School Modernization
Part I - Elementary and Secondary Schools
Sec. 221. Purpose
Sec. 222. Authorization of Appropriations
Sec. 223. Allocation of Funds
Sec. 224. State Use of Funds
Sec. 225. State and Local Applications
Sec. 226. Use of Funds
Sec. 227. Private Schools
Sec. 228. Additional Provisions
Part II - Community College Modernization
Sec. 229. Federal assistance for Community College Modernization"
"Educators sharing bookmarks and best practice. We have a set of standard tags to help us share things that you may use in addition to your tags. (You may subscribe to these tags via RSS feed by subject area, which makes it very useful.)
Group Info
Members: 1989
Items: 9602
Visits: 22590
Owner: Vicki Davis
Group type: Public, apply to join
Group category: Schools & Education"