Thursday marks the 14th Global Accessibility Awareness Day
The purpose of GAAD is to get everyone talking, thinking and learning about access and inclusion, and the more than 1 billion people with disabilities/impairments. Whilst assistive technology historically has been focused on assisting students with disabilities, these products contain many features that will be of benefit to all students and staff at Swansea University.
Here are a few examples of the resources at your disposal:
- Assistive Technology
- ReciteMe Toolbar
- Microsoft Accessibility
- Physical Support
- Accessible Workspace
- Electronic Format
Swansea University have invested in a suite of assistive technology which can assist students with productivity in their studies.
Glean empowers students with note taking barriers to take meaningful notes by providing a space to focus on active listening and then an opportunity to process to refine and retain information effectively.
Read&Write can read any digital text aloud and has built in grammar and a phonetic spell checker. Whether you need to read large volumes of text, or assistance with writing and proof-reading your assignments, or tools to help with revision for your exams.
All software programs can be found on the unified desktop under “Accessibility”.
The Swansea Uni website has a reciteme toolbar. The cloud-based assistive technology toolbar which allows you to customise our university webpages in a way that works best for you! You can change the font size, language, and colour theme of the website to name a few features.
Most campus PCs have Windows/Office 365. Did you know that Microsoft Windows devices have a wide range of accessibility features? These include magnifier, colour filters, contrast features, voice recognition, immersive reader and more.
As well as digital accessibility, the physical is also important. There are a number of inclusive design features on campus including tactile paving, contrast features, braille signage, height-adjustable desks, VI room in the library and more.
Our VI room in Singleton Library is located on level 3. The room has five height adjustable desks, docking stations, a magnifier, wide screen monitors and large print keyboards, a comfy sofa and plenty of space for guide dogs.
The undergraduate prospectus is available in an accessible, electronic format produced by Swansea University Transcription Centre. The Transcription Centre produce accessible formats such as braille, large print, electronic formats for screen readers, of learning resources for print disabled students. We tailor our support to meet individual students’ needs.
At Swansea University, we want all our students to do the best they can, and we offer lots of help and support to those who need it. Our ‘Guide to Extra Help and Support’ is for anyone who may have a disability or long-standing difficulty.
Link to the guide: https://swansea.ac.uk/wellbeing/guide-to-extra-help-and-support/