By STEPHANIE VASQUEZ GABELA and LAURA STANILAND TRYBUS
October is not only the beginning of apple and pumpkin season, but it is also a month when practitioners of digital inclusion, digital equity, digital accessibility, and assistive technology take on an advocacy role for those with disabilities. October is National Disability Employee Awareness Month, National Audiology Awareness month, and the second week of October is Digital Inclusion week.
The UPMC Center for Assistive Technology and the University Center for Teaching and Learning at Pitt understand the importance of assistive technology for learning, working and navigating your day. Here are our recommendations for some programs that may help you attend to your digital demands.
Noting taking: Writing comprehensive notes while listening to someone speak can be challenging especially while trying to process new information and think of questions. This is where Glean.co and Aiko can help. Glean is a digital note taking program made for students but can benefit anyone who finds notetaking to be a challenge. Glean not only records classes but also offers services such as audio transcription, color coding, prioritization by tagging items as “Important” or “Review,” and adding customization for notes. Aiko is a free iOS app for transcribing audio recordings from meetings, classes, etc. It is built on OpenAI’s Whisper 3 Large Language Model (LLM) so its accuracy depends on some of the programmers who brought us ChatGPT.
Screen readers: Although screen readers have been around for almost 40 years, many people have never heard of them. Screen readers are usually used by those who are vision impaired to “read” the contents of their screen. The screen reader reads everything out loud as the user navigates their email, calendar, websites and more. If you are looking for a free built-in screen reader accessibility feature, we suggest VoiceOver for Mac users and Microsoft’s Narrator for Windows users. If you are looking for additional options, JAWS is one of the best proprietary screen readers available. It only runs on the Windows OS, so if you want to use it on a Mac, you’ll need to run Parallels or Bootcamp.
Dyslexia help: In the U.S., it is estimated that more than 40 million adults have been diagnosed with dyslexia, and only 2 million have been diagnosed. Fortunately, there are more tools to assist those with dyslexia now. Kurzweil 3000 is one tool that can help with reading. On a side note, it works with Canvas except for in Quizzes. We also suggest using Adobe Acrobat’s Read Aloud feature, MS Edge Read Aloud and Microsoft’s Immersive Reader, the last two can also be used within Canvas.
Digital planners: Keeping track of details when juggling responsibilities can lead to many asking about digital planners and checklist software. Microsoft’s “To Do” tool is free and can be used with Outlook. If you are looking for a simple checklist app, Google offers “Tasks” which syncs across devices and has a simple interface.
Fighting distractions: If you find yourself easily distracted by social media or other digital distractions, both Microsoft and Apple offer free cognitive accessibility features. Windows offers the “Focus” feature which provides a timer and allows you to limit notifications. Apple offers a variety of features to help with limiting distractions such as “Background Sounds” and “Siri” along with features for decreasing time spent using apps on the iPhone and iPad. Another free tool is ZenFocus which enforces the “pomodoro technique” for working. “LifeAt” is a combination of focusing, organizing, and calming techniques; it has both a free version and a premium option for $4 per month.
If this still doesn’t do it for you and you wish you could work in a cave dwelling, without the bugs but with the 21st century amenities, we suggest the useful but expensive Freedom. Everything is hackable, but this might make you stop, go outside, and touch some grass.
Stephanie Vasquez Gabela is with the Department of Rehabilitation Science and Technology and UPMC Center for Assistive Technology. Laura Staniland Trybus is at the University Center for Teaching and Learning.