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Assistive Technology at NC State

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This page provides a current listing of publicly available assistive technology (AT) at North Carolina State University. NC State University integrates assistive technology into all environments to the extent possible and maintains two centralized assistive technology labs: the DSS AT Lab located in Disability Services for Students, and the Assistive Technologies Center (ATC) in Room 1402 on the mezzanine of the D. H. Hill Library. The Laundry Lab, a public Unity Lab, also contains an extensively equipped AT station, and is located in Room 109 of the Laundry Building, which is on the corner of Stinson and Current Drive.

The ATC houses technologies to facilitate library research and alternate format access to library materials for users with a variety of vision, hearing, and/or mobility related disabilities. The ATC is available at all times when D. H. Hill Library is open.The facility is kept locked for security reasons. With a valid NC State ID, a key to the room can be borrowed from the Express Circulation Desk, the Main Circulation Desk, or the Reserve Desk, and visitors may ask to be let in. Staff at the Reference Desk can provide general assistance in the use of ATC equipment and can help in selecting and using library resources. Library users who do not know how to operate independently the assistive technology in the ATC (particularly first-time users) can call in advance to schedule an appointment with a member of the Research and Information Services Department (515-2936) for an orientation to the ATC. All Research and Information Services staff can provide general information about the ATC, but specific contact people for this facility include Katherine Dexter, NC State Library's Disability Services Coordinator (513-0304) and David DeFoor, the Computing Consultant for the ATC (513-3961). For more information about the ATC and the equipment available for use in the ATC, please visit the web site http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/risd/atc/. Information about other services provided to library patrons with disabilities is also provided on this web site.

The following comprehensive list includes AT that is available on campus. Due to the fluid nature of Assistive and Information Technologies and our continual work to deploy AT solutions on the NC State campus, some information on this page may be out of date. If you notice incorrect information on this page, or have questions about NC State's assistive technologies that are available, please contact Ricky Lee, the Coordinator of Assistive Technology.

Use the following links to navigate to a particular assistive technology category:

Screen Readers

JAWS for Windows is installed in the following locations:

  • Assistive Technologies Center, 1402 DH Hill, with a Power Braille 40
  • Disability Services for Students, Suite 1900, Student Health Center, with a Power Braille 80
  • Unity Labs, including Laundry (LAUAT) with a Power Braille 40, D.H. Hill (DHH001PC), Avent Ferry (AFC010PC), Sullivan (SUL015PC), Tucker (TUC001PC), Bagwell (BAG006PC), and North (NOR010PC).
  • College of Education: Learning Resources Library, Room 400 Poe Hall, with a Power Braille 40
  • College of Engineering, Daniels Hall, with a Power Braille 80

JAWS 6.0 is the version of JAWS currently deployed on campus. If you encounter an older version of JAWS or know of a location where JAWS might be needed, please contact Ricky Lee. Please see Installing JAWS 6.0.

NC State has a number of licenses for IBM Home Page Reader. Home Page Reader is available on all Unity computers from the Novell Application Launcher.

Emacspeak, a screen reader for Linux and Unix (it interfaces with Emacs), is currently installed on all Engineering Realm Linux computers running RedHat Linux WS3, and is installed in a locker for the Solaris platform. See the Eos Guide: Labs and Platforms and the NC State Emacspeak help document for specific locations. Emacspeak requires that you use a DoubleTalk hardware sysnthesizer. Please see Ricky Lee to checkout a DoubleTalk synthesizer. Emacspeak is also available in the DSS AT Lab.

Gnopernicus, a screen reader for the Gnome desktop, is available on the Solaris 10 platform in the Assistive Technology lab at DSS.

The Assistive Technologies Center, 1402 DH Hill, also has the following web readers available:

  • IBM Homepage Reader 2.5
  • pwWebSpeak PLUS 2.5.14
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Braille Embossers

A Braille Embosser with Duxbury Braille Translation Software version 10.5 is available in the following locations:

  • College of Education, 400 Poe Hall
  • Assistive Technology Lab, Room 1906 Student Health Center
  • Assistive Technologies Center, 1402 DH Hill
  • Laundry Lab (See Unity Labs)
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Screen Magnification Software

The NC State University Kiosks are based on Mac OSX and the operating system has inherit magnification. To zoom in, press the option-control-plus keys simultaneously. To zoom out, press the option-control-minus keys simultaneoulsy. The Macintosh workstations available in the Unity Labs also have this feature, and magnification is activated in the same way. See also: MAC OS X Universal Access features.

Zoomtext and/or MAGic is installed in the following locations (upgrades are ongoing):

  • Assistive Technologies Center, 1402 DH Hill
  • Disability Services for Students, 1900 Student Health Center
  • Many Unity Labs, including Laundry (LAUAT), D.H. Hill (DHH001PC), Avent Ferry (AFC010PC), Sullivan (SUL015PC), Tucker (TUC001PC), Bagwell (BAG006PC), and North (NOR010PC).
  • College of Education:
    • Open Lab, 400 Poe Hall (on Kurzweil Scanning PC)
    • 414 Poe Hall (2 Unity Windows 2000 PCs)
    • 420 Poe Hall (2 Unity Windows 2000 PCs)
    • 414A Poe Hall (Mobile Unity Windows 2000 PC) - can be moved to classrooms as needed
  • College of Engineering:
    • 100 Leazar, workstation pc001lez100.eos.ncsu.edu (on left wall when entering from Stinston Drive)
    • 242 Daniels, workstation pc003daniels242.eos.ncsu.edu
    • 4231 Broughton (2 PCs with large monitors)
  • College of Humanities and Social Sciences:
    • Tompkins 113, Humanities PC Lab
    • Tompkins 109, Computer Classroom
  • Other Colleges have ZoomText as well. Information to be posted soon.

NC State has a site license for ZoomText, and it can be installed on any university-owned computer running Windows. Please contact Ricky Lee for more information.

Additionally, the university has a site license for MAGic available for installation on university computers. Please see information on the MAGic Network Client.

For Linux, gmag is installed in an AFS locker and is therefore available from any NCSU Linux Realmkit (this includes all Linux machines installed in labs). For help using gmag, please refer to the NC State gmag help document.

The Assistive Technologies Center also has pwWebSpeak PLUS 2.5.14 (voice web browser) which has some screen magnification capabilities.

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Reading, Writing, & Scannning Solutions

  • Kurzweil 1000 Version 8 is currently installed in the following locations:
    • The Assistive Technologies Center, 1402 DH Hill, with UMAX Astra 1200S scanner/reader
    • Disability Services for Students, 1900 Student Health Center, with an HP 5470C ADF scanner
    • College of Education: Open Lab (version 6), 400 Poe Hall, with an HP Scanjet ADF scanner
    • Laundry Lab, with an HP 5470C ADF scanner
  • Kurzweil 3000 Version 8 for Windows is available on all Unity computers that have been upgraded as of Spring 2005. Scanners are available in the following locations:
    • Disability Services for Students, 1900 Student Health Center, with an HP 5470C scanner (Windows) and an Epson Perfection 1250 (Macintosh)
    • The Assistive Technologies Center, 1402 DH Hill, with UMAX Astra 1200S scanner/reader
    • Laundry Lab, with an HP 5470C ADF scanner
    • College of Education, Learning Resources Library, 400 Poe Hall
  • Kurzweil 3000 for Macintosh is available on all Macintosh Unity computers that have been upgraded as of Spring 2005.
  • Read & Write Version 7 Gold for Windows XP is available on Unity computers as of Fall 2004. See Also: Using TextHelp Read & Write
  • TextHelp! Read & Write for Macintosh is available on Unity computers as of Fall 2004.

A good article about the utility of Kurzweil 3000 in the higher education environment was published in Syllabus magazine, December 2002. This article is available online at http://www.syllabus.com/article.asp?id=6995.

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Large Monitors

Large computer monitors are available in the following locations:

  • All Windows workstations in the following Unity Labs have 19 inch monitors: Laundry, Bagwell, Sullivan, and Avent Ferry. A number of the monitors in North are 19 inch.
  • North Hall has a number of Solaris Ultra 10 machines (Unix) with 21 inch monitors
  • Assistive Technologies Center, 1402 DH Hill (23 inch LCD monitors)
  • Disability Services for Students, 1900 Student Health Center (all machines are either 20 inch or 30 inch LCD, or 42 inch Plasma)

Additional large monitors (20 inch LCDs) are available for loan to departments who need them to accommodate students with disabilities. Please contact Ricky Lee for more information or to request a monitor.

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Magnification Equipment

D.H. Hill Library has the following CCTV equipment:

  • Black-and-white Telesensory Voyager Visualtek CCTV (public work area near the Reference Desk)
  • Telesensory Aladdin Genie Pro Color CCTV with PC (Assistive Technology Center, Room 1402)
  • Telesensory Chroma SVA color camera with a 20-inch SVGA monitor (Assistive Technologies Center, Room 1402)

Disability Services for Students, 1900 Student Health Center, has the following CCTV and other magnification equipment:

CCTVs are also available for student use in the following locations on campus:

The following CCTVs are available for loan to departments for accommodating students with disabilities or for installation in student-used facilities on campus. Many of these CCTVs are also used by student with disabilities in the classroom as part of their academic accommodations. Please contact Ricky Lee for more information.

  • Magnisight Explorer with 20 inch monitor
  • VTI Freedom Machine Color CCTV with 20 inch monitor
  • ERGO CCTV on floor-stand
  • OVAC Zoom Eye portable magnifier
  • Clarity Long Flex portable magnifier and Clarity Classmate
  • Sony Glasstron eyewear display units (for interfacing with portable magnifiers)
  • Telesensory MiniViewer portable CCTV
  • Liberty Plus 10.4 inch color portable CCTV
  • Telesensory Olympia portable CCTV
  • Pulse Data Pocket Viewer portable CCTV
  • Optelec Traveler portable CCTV
  • Telesensory PICO portable CCTV

Assistive Listening Systems and Devices

For a list of classrooms equipped with assistive listening systems, see the Assisted Listening Systems @ NC State web page.

The Disability Service for Students office also has a number of portable Assistive Listening Devices available to departments and students for loan as a part of students' academic accommodations. Contact the DSS office for questions or requests concerning Assistive Listening Devices at NC State.

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Video & IP Relay Service

A Logitech QuickCam Pro 4000 is available at the kiosk in the DSS office and in the Assistive Technology Lab for use with North Carolina Video Relay Service. Video Relay Service is a supplement to traditional TTY relay service, which offers American Sign Language Users opportunity to communicate by video conferencing.

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Speech Recognition

Speech Recognition software is available in the following locations:

  • Disability Services for Students, 1900 Student Health Center
    • IBM Via Voice 10.0 Pro USB Edition (Windows or Macintosh)
    • Dragon Naturally Speaking Professional Version 7.3
    • MathTalk with Scientific Notebook
  • Assistive Technologies Center, 1402 DH Hill
    • IBM ViaVoice 8
    • Dragon Naturally Speaking Professional Version

Multiple licenses of Dragon Naturally Speaking 7.0 (for Windows) and IBM Via Voice 10.0 (for Windows, Mac or Linux) are available for local installations around campus. Silencers are also available for loan to students to facilitate inconspicuous speech input in public labs. Please contact Ricky Lee for more information.

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Accessible workstations (adjustable table height)

Motorized dual surface adjustable workstations are available in the following locations:

  • Assistive Technologies Center, DH Hill
  • Disability Services for Students, 1900 Student Health Center
  • College of Engineering
    • 204 Daniels
  • The following Unity Labs:
    • Sullivan - SUL015PC
    • D.H. Hill - N00177-2413DHHL, N00170-2413DHHL, and DHH006PC
    • Laundry - LAUAR, LAU028PC, LAU153MAC, and No1137-lau1.unity.ncsu.edu
    • Bagwell - BAG006PC
    • North - NOR010PC
    • Avent Ferry - AFC010PC, and N00105-104AFC
    • Tucker - TUC001PC
  • College of Humanities and Social Sciences:
    • Humanities Computer Lab, 113 Tompkins Hall
    • Humanities Macintosh Lab, 118 Winston Hall
  • College of Management
    • B400 Nelson Hall
  • College of Textiles
    • TEX 4404

Additional electronic dual surface adjustable workstations are currently being installed in computer labs across campus. Others are available for loan to departments who need them to accommodate students with disabilities. Please contact Ricky Lee for more information.

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Alternative Keyboards

Disability Services has the following alternative keyboards available for loan to students or for installation on university-owned computers:

  • Comfort Keyboard System
  • Standards keyboards with large print black on white lettering
  • Standards keyboards with large print white on black lettering
  • Standards keyboards with Braille lettering
  • Maltron right-handed keyboard
  • Left-handed keyboard
  • BAT keyboard
  • Tash WinMini keyboard
  • Big Keys LX
  • Magic Wand mini Keyboard
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Alternative Pointing Devices

A Kensington Expert Mouse Trackball is presently available in the Assistive Technologies Center, 1402 DH Hill. Mouse-Trak Professional track balls are available across campus on various Windows, Sun and Macintosh computers. Please contact Ricky Lee for specific locations or to request a specific location.

Disability Services for Students also has a number of other Alternative Pointing Devices available for student use either in the DSS Assistive Technology Lab or for loan as part of a student's academic accommodations, including the Zero Tension Mouse, the Rocket Mouse, and the Roller II Joystick.

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Classroom access products for persons with blindness or low vision

DSS also has the following equipment available for individual students to check out for use in their courses:

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Classroom Notetaking Devices

DSS has the following classroom notetaking devices for eligible students:

  • AlphaSmart 3000
  • DANA - Palm Powered AlphaSmart 3000
  • Palm Tungsten T3 with keyboard
  • PAC Mate BX440
  • PAC Mate TX440
  • Maestro - accessible pocket pc
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Other miscellaneous AT products

Disability Services for Students has a variety of products available for checkout. Contact DSS (515-7653) to discuss your specific needs.

The Assistive Technologies Center also has products other than those mentioned on this page. For more information, see Assistive Technologies in the ATC.

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Last Updated: June 22, 2005