e-Campus News reports how Kurzweil 3000 web, firefly makes a big difference in college

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e-Campus News, the journal of technology news for higher-education, recently published a feature story on Kurzweil 3000 and firefly web license; “Outside-the-box assistive tech goes campus-wide,” by Andrew Barbour, (January 19th, 2015). http://www.ecampusnews.com/technologies/assistive-tech-campus-993/

In telling the story of DeAnna Guetschow, who was diagnosed with “dyslexia tendencies and ADHD” the article builds a picture of what firefly and unlimited access to Kurzweil 3000 can bring to students.

Here’s an excerpt:

“As at many schools, the Kurzweil 3000 program at Adrian College is installed on computers in the disabilities office. And therein lies one of the biggest challenges facing institutions trying to support the rising number of students with LD: Unlike Guetschow, many students with LD won’t set foot in their school’s disabilities office... .. For Guetschow, who signed up for a free trial of Firefly during her senior year, the benefits were immediate. For starters, she was no longer a slave to the disabilities office’s hours. “The library is open twice as long as the disabilities office,” she noted. “I could go to the library to scan my textbook pages as PDFs, put them on a flash drive, and then have Firefly read them off that. It was fantastic. I could do my homework at home at 3 o’clock in the morning.

The article has some fascinating insights in the growth of ADHD and LD diagnosis in post-secondary students. However, as is often the case, these are US statistics. Do you work in a university or college disability office and have seen the same trends here in Canada?

If so, how has that affected your practice? We’d love to hear your insights. Please feel free to share your comments below.

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