According to the Act a service provider, or in the case of further and higher education a "responsible body", must take "reasonable steps to provide auxiliary aids or services if this would enable (or make it easier for) disabled people to make use of any services which it offers to the public."

As with the "Reasonable Adjustments" section of the Act that became law last September (2002), the Act is very vague as to what an auxiliary aid actually is.  Many organisations may well ask themselves "how do we make reasonable adjustments if we don't know what a reasonable adjustment is?" Although the Code of Practice, published by the Disability Rights Commission, provides a number of useful scenarios in terms of making reasonable adjustments, it tends to be slightly less descriptive and informative regarding auxiliary aids and services.

How then are colleges to respond to the requirements of the Act if there is an element of uncertainty as to the most useful aid and service that will meet a range of students" needs, especially given the myriad of programs and applications available on the market?   According to the Code of Practice, what constitutes an appropriate auxiliary aid or service will vary according to the type of service provider, the nature of the services being provided and the requirements of disabled students or potential students.  Whilst auxiliary aids and services are not limited to aids to communication, auxiliary aids such as an induction loop system for hearing impaired students could be a prerequisite in most colleges.

The real difficulty arises when choosing an appropriate auxiliary aid that will be cost effective to the organisation, will meet the needs of a wide range of learners and is also compliant with the legislation.  It might make sense to purchase a qualitative screen reading program, such as JAWS or SuperNova, for visually impaired learners and have it available across the college network.  Taking into consideration that JAWS Professional costs around ?890 for one user licence and that SuperNova Professional is over the ?900 bracket (with additional licences at ?420 per user), the overall cost of auxiliary aids be can significant.  Nor can we assume that a visually impaired person will be able to effortlessly and intuitively use these programs without any training, unless they are already a JAWS user or are familiar with the program.

In order to maximise the potential from programs such as JAWS, Windows-Eyes or HAL, a steep learning curve is often required as these programs demand extensive knowledge of keyboard skills, in particular keyboard shortcuts or hotkeys.  This can often put additional pressure on visually impaired students who have the same anxieties about their coursework, deadlines etc, as their peers.  I can remember the difficulties I experienced when I was asked to teach keyboard skills to a blind student who had never used a computer before.  Without the appropriate equipment, expertise and training, the experience can be exasperating for both the lecturer and student.  Without appropriate resources (skills, time etc.) student disillusionment can quickly take over.

Coupled with this, colleges will also be required to provide the appropriate "Services" to comply with the law.  Again the Act is not clear as to what an appropriate "Service" actually is although it does provide two examples; the provision of information on audio tape and the provision of a sign language interpreter.  Both examples provide relevant instances of the Beattie Committee Report"s recommendation regarding collaborative practice.  Taking advice from the RNID and RNIB could be a useful starting point.

While these are only illustrations of the kind of auxiliary aids or services which a college might need to consider it is important to note that, with some planning and foresight, complying with the Act need not be expensive.  While some solutions are available as standard, others can be downloaded from the Internet for free and can meet a wide range of needs which, as the Code of Practice states, are not limited to communication aids.

Narrator

For example, there are a number of resources currently available in Windows, in particular some of the more recent operating systems such as Windows 2000 and Windows XP that will provide access for users who experience physical, sensory or cognitive difficulties.   While it is difficult to compare these with professional programs such as JAWS they can be utilised to work effectively if set up correctly.

An example of this is Narrator (In Windows, "Start" - "Programs" - "Accessories" - "Accessibility"),  a text-to-speech utility for users who are blind or have impaired vision. Narrator reads what is displayed on the computer screen such as the contents of an active window, menu options, or typed text.  Although Narrator will only work effectively with Notepad and Wordpad when typing it will read information in other applications such as the Control Panel, Internet Explorer, and the Windows desktop.  Although Narrator can be set up to respond to the mouse it is most effective when operated via the keyboard.  If the correct keystrokes are used on the keyboard, for example Ctrl + (arrow keys), Narrator will echo letters, words, sentences and paragraphs back to the user.  There is currently only one voice (i.e., Microsoft Sam), although some 'tinkering" around with the sound settings will allow for an acceptable and tolerable voice.  A further benefit of Narrator is that some dyslexic students may find it useful, particularly having the voice echo to read back words or sentences when proof reading essays or reports.

A further example of an auxiliary aid is Microsoft"s On-Screen Keyboard (In Windows, "Start" - "Programs" - "Accessories" - "Accessibility"). This displays a virtual keyboard on the screen and allows users with mobility impairments to type using a pointing device or joystick.  Although this particular on-screen keyboard is intended to provide a minimum level of functionality for users with mobility impairments, it has a number of useful features.

The On-Screen Keyboard in Windows can be set up so that it responds by either clicking or hovering the mouse over the chosen key for users who are unable to click.  This works extremely well with a trackerball such as the Microspeed or Microspeed KidTRAC.  Alternatively, the "scanning" feature works extremely well with a joystick or even a single switch - similar to the device Stephen Hawking uses. It is also possible to use the On-Screen Keyboard to control other aspects of a computer, such as file menus in Word or Excel by using the Alt + F command to start a new file or the Windows button to activate the Programs menu.  One disadvantage is the inability to increase the keyboard size although it is possible to make the keytop characters larger by increasing the font size.  A 30-day trial of the extended On-Screen Keyboard can be downloaded from the original developers at www.madentec.com 

However, the Click-N-Type virtual keyboard which is designed for users who are unable to type using a standard keyboard, can be downloaded for free from www.lakefolks.org/cnt. This is a truly amazing application that will benefit anyone who can only control a mouse, trackball or switch.  Many of its features, for example, word prediction, mouse hover, scanning, auditory feedback, clipboard, frequency of use keyboard as well as upper and lower case keyboard, are normally found on some of the more expensive programs such as Penfriend or TextHelp Read and Write.  

ReadPlease

Another useful download which is free of charge is ReadPlease 2003, www.readplease.com.  This program will read any text on a computer screen. This can be from an Internet browser, e-mail, word processor, spreadsheet or any program which displays text.  As well as reading text it is possible to increase font sizes, change the font and background colours, for example high contrast black on white or white on black and yellow on black with a "Comic Sans" font (recommended by the Dyslexia Association). There are also a number of AT&T Natural Voices which will engage a wide range of users.  In terms of meeting the criteria of Auxiliary Aids, ReadPlease 2003 is an excellent software program which will benefit a number of students, in particular visually impaired students or students who experience difficulties with reading.   Because it is free, it can be loaded to a single stand-alone computer or even a network without the worry of licence implications. 

Bundled with Office XP (Microsoft Office Tools) the "Save My Settings Wizard" is something all colleges should know about.  This will allow a user to save their personal settings to a floppy disk, a local file or even the Internet.  If a student needs to customise their Word document or Excel spreadsheet to meet their specific needs, (e.g. large icons, blue background white text, larger menu fonts) it is possible to save these settings using "Save My Settings Wizard".  These settings can then be transferred to another computer similar to a roaming profile. By simply clicking the "Save My Settings Wizard" icon on the user"s floppy disk it is possible to transform the settings in Microsoft Office to his or her requirements.

And finally, if a college decision has been made to use JAWS or a similar screen reading application, Talking Typer which includes speech output is an extremely useful utility to help with keyboard skills. In addition to speech output the text displayed can be customised, allowing size, font and colour of text to be changed. Other features include the "Learn the Keyboard" screen that allows the user to press whatever key they want and receive a verbal confirmation of that key's name. This allows users to familiarise themselves with the keyboard. The Talking Typer can be downloaded from http://sun1.aph.org/tech/ 

It is recognised that lecturers and support staff face increasing workloads and greater expectations when striving to meet the range of additional support needs of their students. It is not my intention here to suggest that the above programs should replace those applications that have been designed specifically to address particular needs, such as visual impairment or dyslexia.  However, there are clearly circumstances where the use of these readily available and standard accessibility features will not only facilitate the delivery of learning, but may in fact be essential in order to make that learning genuinely accessible.

Craig runs a consultancy for assistive technology providing training to small groups of lecturers and/or students on a range of assistive and accessible hardware and software applications.  For more information please e-mail him at the following address craig@hoolet.com.