Assistive Technology

Assistive technology (AT) devices can enable people with disabilities to take advantage of library resources, including printed texts and electronic information. As part of the University's commitment to assisting students with special needs, the library has designated a room specifically for this purpose, called the Assistive Technology Room.

Biola Students desiring to use the room must receive prior approval from Disability Services (562-944-0351, ext. 5851) and be given a personal computer account login to use the equipment.

The key element in the room is the assistive technology station, which sits on top of an electrically height-adjustable desk to accommodate wheel chairs of any size.

Station configurations:

  • Dell Pentium IV computer with a 19" flat-panel monitor
  • CD/DVD drive with read/write capability
  • Gooseneck desktop microphone
  • Headset with microphone
  • Desktop speakers
  • High-resolution scanner
  • Handheld electronic text/image magnifier
  • Internet access
  • Black & white or color printing

Special adaptive computer programs available:

  • Common Windows applications (e.g., Office, Media Player)
  • JAWS for Windows, a screen reading program with integrated voice synthesizer that enables blind and visually impaired students to browse the Web, read or write e-mail messages, work on spreadsheets, or access database information
  • Dragon Naturally Speaking, a speech-recognition program that enables physically challenged students to dictate into virtually any Windows program
  • ZoomText, a screen magnifier and reader program that enables low-vision students to read text from any Windows application, including Web pages and e-mail
  • Kurzweil 3000, a program utilizing human-sounding synthetic speech to read scanned or electronic text aloud for those with reading difficulties
  • TextHelp Read & Write, which includes a number of program features that will work within any application, allowing students to read and write at their own level with greater proficiency

Other AT equipment:

To assist severely visually impaired students, the ClearView 300 Series black-and-white video magnifier with an integrated 17" monitor can be used to visually magnify and/or enhance the text on any book, article or other document page. This device includes an oversized reading table with wrist rests and brake, instant focus, one-touch zoom magnification, image contrast, position locator and three reading modes (photo, reading and reverse contrast). This table also contains a desktop lamp for additional lighting and a cassette player.

The assistive technology room also has an ultra-compact document scanner and computer, which is capable of scanning single-sheet documents or multiple sheets of mixed document sizes and weight. Combined with the Adobe Acrobat Professional software, the resultant scanned documents can be custom formatted and printed. This technology is intended to make any class book (unbound) or document available to the student, as their needs dictate.

To further aid students, large print edition dictionaries, thesauri, Bibles and a Strong's Exhaustive Concordance are also available.