Assistive Technologies

The DRC utilizes the latest in assistive technology to allow students the opportunity to fully engage in campus life.

Genio

Our note-taking tool allows you to capture audio and visualize phrases into chunks, which can be color-highlighted, annotated and organized.

The built-in features allow you to:

Capture audio, text and slides in a single workspace.
Capture audio, text and slides in a single workspace.
Export to various formats to suit their learning style
Improve audio quality and extract what's most useful for you
Embed PowerPoint slides, PDFs, images and other media to support audio recordings

Kurzweil 3000

Kurzweil 3000 is a reading, writing and learning tool that helps students who learn in different ways. It supports skills like sounding out words, building vocabulary, reading smoothly and understanding what you read.

Students can choose what they want to read like websites, PDFs, e-books or their writing. If you're interested in utilizing it, contact your assigned DRC access consultant.

Download Read-the-web Kurzweil Web Extension
This extension is compatible with Canvas, Chrome and Firefox.
How to use the Kurzweil Read the Web Extension
1. Go to a webpage with text you want read aloud.
2. Click the Kurzweil Read the Web icon in your browser toolbar.
3. Log in with your Kurzweil 3000 username and password.
4. The extension will open kurzweil3000.com in a new tab.
5. Use the on-screen buttons to access the same reading and learning tools available in the Kurzweil 3000 desktop version or website.

Kurzweil Taskbar Text Reader/Image Reader

The Kurzweil Taskbar Text Reader/Image Reader is part of the Kurzweil 3000 software that lets you read text and images directly from your computer screen. It works only on standalone PC licenses.

Turn on the Kurzweil Taskbar
1. Right-click on the taskbar at the bottom of your screen.
2. Choose Toolbars
3. Click Kurzweil Taskbar
How to use the Text Reader
1. Highlight the text you want to hear
2. Drag your mouse over the text, and the program will read it out loud
How to use the Image Reader
1. Click on the image that has words.
2. Draw a box around the text you want to read, and the program will read the words inside the box.

JAWS

JAWS (Job Access With Speech) is a screen reader that helps people who are blind or have low vision use a computer. It reads text on the screen out loud using keyboard shortcuts from both Microsoft and JAWS.

If you're registered with the DRC and have an active FIU email, you can get a JAWS Home License. To get started, make sure you use your FIU email address.

ZoomText

ZoomText is a program that helps students with low vision by making everything on the computer screen bigger. It can also read the screen out loud.

If you’re registered with the DRC and have an active FIU email, you can get a ZoomText Home License. To get started, be sure to use your FIU email address.

Livescribe Echo Smart Pen

LiveScribe Smartpens record both what you write and what you hear. The notes and audio are linked together, so you can listen and follow along easily. You can play back your notes with apps like Evernote and Google Docs. Contact your DRC access consultant to learn more.

C-Pen ReaderPen

The C-Pen ReaderPen is a handy, portable tool that helps you read independently. You can scan text to hear it read aloud with natural voices and get word definitions from top dictionaries. It also has a voice recorder and can save what you scan. Everything works without needing the internet.

The digital highlighter and text-to-speech help you learn better by using different senses. You can also record teacher instructions or practice saying words.

There is a special version called C-Pen Exam Reader made just for tests. It only reads the text and doesn’t give answers or allow extra materials. Using earphones with it lets you take tests in the same room as other students. Contact your DRC access consultant to learn more.

Microsoft Word

Microsoft Word supports text-to-speech functionality. Word can read your documents out loud using two features: Read Aloud and Speak.

How to use Read Aloud
1. 1. Go to the Review tab and click Read Aloud. A toolbar will appear at the top right.
  2. Select the text you want to hear and press the Play button.
You can change the reading speed using a slider and choose different voices from the dropdown menu.
How to use Speak text-to-speech
Speak is a text-to-speech tool in Microsoft Word. It reads aloud the word near your cursor or any text you select. Speak is not turned on by default, so you’ll need to add it first.
How to Add Speak to Word
1. Click the File menu and select Options.
2. Go to Customize Ribbon.
3. On the right side, pick the tab where you want Speak to appear.
4. Click New Group to make a custom group. You can rename it to make it easier to find later.
5. On the left side, change the dropdown at the top from Popular Commands to Commands Not in the Ribbon.
6. Scroll down, find Speak, and select it.
7. Select your new group, then click Add.
8. Click OK to save.
You can also add Speak to the Quick Access Toolbar by selecting that option in step 2.
How to Remove Speak
1. Go back to Customize Ribbon or Quick Access Toolbar, depending on where you added it.
2. On the right side, select Speak, then click Remove.
3. If you added a custom group just for Speak, you can remove that group as well.

SensusAccess

SensusAccess is a file format conversion service that FIU has licensed for current students, faculty and staff. This service is available free of charge and works with PDFs, JPEGs, e-books, Daisy, MP3, word/text files or Braille. Users must have an active FIU email address to use it. Learn how to create accessible files with the SensusAccess e-learning course.

Getting Started
The quality of conversion will depend on the quality of the original document uploaded. Scanned documents are processed using optical character recognition to convert images into text before creating the final output.
When scanning a document, make sure the scan is clean and clear. Smudges, tears in the paper, blurry print and skewed text will affect the quality.
If a document is an image file, try converting it to a tagged PDF first, then copy and paste it into Microsoft Word.
How to get the most out of SensusAccess
How to Use SensusAccess
To use SensusAccess, simply upload your file using the document upload page. The system will process your file and convert it into the format you selected.
Download SensusAccess instruction
Copyright
By using this service, the user agrees to abide by any copyright and fair use laws and any applicable institutional policies. All copyright provisions apply to the use of the SensusAccess service.
You must have appropriate copyright permission to upload materials to SensusAccess (i.e., you own the copyright, you are using the material under fair use or the disabilities provisions of copyright law).
You can make an accessible copy if you own the copyright (e.g., it's your work), have permission from the copyright holder, if the copyright has expired or if it's for someone with a print disability.
Note that the resulting file likely has the same copyright restrictions as the original. Please refer to the FIU copyright policy to find more information on this topic.

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