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Reading Accommodations

Students request reading accommodations because they experience barriers to print. These barriers may be caused by several disabilities:

  • They can't read print at all, such as blind or low vision students, and sometimes due to severe learning disabilities ;
  • They can read, but only at very slow rates and thus cannot keep up with the extensive reading demands in college; or
  • They can read but experience significant limitations in short-term memory and/or reading comprehension, and thus are inefficient at reading because they must reread the same passages numerous times in order to get the meaning.

Something about alternatives to print?

For students with reading barriers, "alternate formats" may include:
  • Braille
  • Audio Recordings --
    • 4-track cassettes
    • Audio Plus; aka Daisy, on CDs, or
    • even using a live reader
  • electronic text, or e-text
For some students, reading Braille, or listening to recordings or electronic text read by digital voices means access to print. Depending on a student's disability, listening to the audio while reading along visually is the best approach.
All of the above alternative formats require advanced planning, and specialized equipment or software. To ensure that the learning environment is accessible to all students, Disability Services distributes software in campus computer labs, and students can check out various hardware players to use with 4-track cassettes, Audio Plus CDs, or e-text:
  • Hardware
    • Victor Pro Daisy playback machines
    • BookPort digital e-text playback device
    • APH Handi-cassette 4-track player/recorders
  • Software
    • JAWS screen reader
    • WYNN (What You Need Now)
    • OpenBook
    • Book Wizard Reader
  • Students interested in alternative formats, or in discussing whether they might be a reasonable accommodation, should talk to their Disability Services Coordinators. Coordinators work with students in identifying accommodations, referring for training on software or hardware, and in obtaining alternative formats.

    • In the mean time, here are some further resources: