Print Disability Support

Students with a print disability

The Adaptive Technology Centre has as one of its major goals the minimisation of the disadvantage faced by students with a print disability studying at the University of Newcastle. Lack of access to physical and online print material such as course readings, research material, assessment tasks and examination papers can severely disadvantage students.

A person with a print disability is:

  • A person without sight;
  • A person whose sight is severely impaired
  • A person who is unable to hold or manipulate books or to focus or move his or her eyes or;
  • A person with a perceptual disability

Source: Copyright Amendment Act 1998

The Adaptive Technology Centre can assist students who have a print disability by providing the following services:

Accessible Format Conversion Centre

The Adaptive Technology Centre provides an accessible format conversion service for students with a print disability. This process involves scanning, reprinting or photocopying original print material such as a set of course readings or a textbook and converting them into the most appropriate accessible format to meet the students needs. Accessible formats include Braille, large print, computer file, audio and coloured paper.

Students with a print disability need to be registered with the Disability Support Service and be referred by the Disability Liaison Officer for an assessment of their accessible format transcription requirements.

As the conversion process can be extremely time consuming it is in the student's best interests to have their accessible format needs assessed prior to the start of each semester and to take a pro-active approach to providing Centre staff with the print material which requires conversion. It is also recommended that students take advantage of training provided through the Centre in the use of the technology required for the conversion process. This will develop each student's survival skills by allowing them to create their own accessible format materials independently of Adaptive Technology Centre staff.

Adaptive Technology

Students with a print disability can be trained in the use of a range of adaptive technology to access both hard copy print material and online print material depending on their needs and course requirements. The technology includes:

For Students who are blind:

  • JAWS Screenreading software
  • Duxbury Braille Translator
  • Versapoint Braille embosser

For students who are vision impaired:

  • Kurzweil 3000 scanning and reading software
  • Zoomtext Extra screen magnification software
  • Closed Circuit TVs

For students with a learning disability or who are unable to hold a book:

  • Kurzweil 3000 scanning and reading software
  • Read and Write software
  • Dragon Naturally Speaking voice recognition software

Electronic Text Resources

  • Online library resources (Uni ID may be required)