AT for College Students
Accessibility and Usability focuses on the expectations and needs of all users in the planning, design, development, and implementation of information, products, and services at MIT. Understanding users and their needs is integral to optimizing the user experience. We are part of the Office of Undergraduate Advising and Academic Programming (UAAP) under the Dean for Undergraduate Education.
Usability is the measure of how well users can learn and use a product to achieve their goals and how satisfied they are with that process Accessibility is the inclusive practice of making products and services usable by people of all abilities and disabilities. Assistive Technology is designed to bridge access for persons with disabilities.
On This Page:
- Braille
- Head-Pointing
- iOS Applications
- Magnification and Low-Vision Devices
- Math Support
- Mouse Clicking Software
- Note-Taking Devices
- Operating System Accessibility Options
- Organizational Tools (Diagramming)
- Reading Software and Devices
- Screen Reading
- Speech Recognition
- Text Scanning and OCR Software
- Braille slate and stylus (similar) a portable device to manually punch out Braille on cards or paper
- Perkins Braille typewriter a manual Braille typewriter
- Braille labelmaker makes one-line sticky-back labels in Braille
- Duxbury Braille Translator software to create Braille documents
- 6dot Braille Label Maker produces Braille-embossed labels using a built-in Braille keyboard or an external QWERTY keyboard
- NaturalPoint SmartNav uses an infrared (IR) camera to track head movements and allow for hand-free mousing
- Camera Mouse a free software download that uses head motion to control the mouse (Windows only)
- 7notes HD Premium allows the user to create documents and take notes by freehand, handwriting to text, or an onscreen keyboard
- Dragon Dictation a voice recognition application that allows the user to easily speak and instantly see your text or email message
- EyeSight a magnification application that uses the built-in camera to enlarge print and other materials up to 12X and has six color enhancement settings
- firefly K3000 a mobile extension to Kurzweil 3000 delivering core text-to-speech reading functions with speed, voice, and pacing accommodations, as well as access to the shared Universal Library content available to Kurzweil 3000 - firefly Web License customers
- GoodReader allows the user to annotate PDF, large TXT files, and other large files
- Learning Ally Audio has advanced accessibility features for ease of reading and learning
- Notability allows the user to write down thoughts, capture ideas and information, annotate documents and outline notes
- openWEB is a customizable browser that allows the user to use a font or style designed to be easy to read, especially for dyslexic readers
- Pages is a word processing application that allows the user to type, create shapes and tables, and add pictures and formatting to documents
- Paper is a drawing and note taking application that provides the user with a blank template and a variety of drawing and writing tools
- PDFpen is a PDF annotation and note taking application
- Penultimate allows the user to write in a notebook with a stylus or your finger as well as share your notebooks by email, Dropbox, or Evernote
- PhatPad allows the user to draw, write, or type their ideas then instantly share them via email, SkyDrive and Dropbox Sync, or presentation mode
- Prizmo is a photo-based scanning application that scans and recognizes text documents, business cards, or images and exports them to PDF/text, vCard, or JPEG/PNG
- Read2Go allows Bookshare members to find, download, and read books on your iOS device
- Remarks allows the user to write notes on an image using their finger or a stylus
- SRC Magnifier is a magnification application that enlarges and illuminates small print
- Typ-O-HD is a voice-recording application with a built-in spelling aid that adjusts to the user's accuracy and offers suggestions, as well as reading playback aloud
- VisionAssist is a magnification application designed to assist users with low vision conditions including AMD, Glaucoma, Diabetic Retinopathy, Cataracts, and color blindness
- Voice Dream Reader is a multilingual text-to-speech reader that can translate and read 27 different languages including text files from PDF, ePub, Word, DAISY, and text files in Dropbox and Google Drive
- WritePad is a text editor that recognizes handwritten notes as well as keyboard input and includes standard editing operations
- ZoomContacts is a large print contact application for users who have difficulty reading the small text on their screen
- Zoomtext for Windows or Mac OS. Includes screen enlargement, extensive cursor options, and optional text-to-speech reading
- VisioVoice (Mac only) Screen enlargement, cursor options, optional text-to-speech reading
- Amigo provides digital, color magnification in a small portable device
- Acrobat LCD magnifier to magnify papers on the desk or a whiteboard at a distance
- Candy 5 HD II magnifier close-up and near-distance handheld magnifier
- DaVinci HD/OCR Desktop Magnifier all-in-one device to magnify papers on the desk or items at a distance on a desktop display. Includes OCR capability. The display can also be connected to a laptop or iOS device
- Note-Taker portable camera to capture and display lecture presentations (blackboard, whiteboard, etc.) on to laptop screen. Includes note-taking options to take notes next to presentation
- Transformer portable electronic magnifier that connects to your laptop, desktop, or monitor
- Large print scientific calculator with large display and keys
- Large print scientific calculator with large display and keys
- Orion TI-36X Talking Scientific Calculator (ATIC has the TI-34 model)
- Math Talk software can be used with Scientific Notebook and Dragon Naturally Speaking to speak math notation expressions into Scientific Notebook.
- MathType Equation Editor allows math to be entered into Word in a format that is easily converted to accessible formats (large print and audio)
- Infty Reader software recognizes and converts math text into usable electronic formats, such as Latex, XML and MathML.
- MathML the standard markup language for mathematics on the web
- SmartClick (Mac/Windows)
- Nib / McNib
- iPad apps: Read2Go, LearningAlly, VoiceDream
- GhostReader
- Kurzweil 1000 (Windows only)
- Kurzweil 3000
- Victor Reader Stream
- GH Read Hear
- Dolphin Easy Reader
- JAWS for Windows
- Window Eyes for Windows
- VoiceOver for Mac (built into OS X)
- Emacspeak for Linux
- Orca for GNOME
- NVDA (Windows only)
- ChromeVox
- Central Access Reader
- Dragon NaturallySpeaking for Windows 7 includes many features beyond text dictation: voice commands that allow for "hands-free" operation of the computer, transcription of recorded audio, and commands to surf the web.
- Dragon Dictate for Mac OS provides transcription of dictation and some commands on Mac OS X. Does not allow for hands-free operation of a Mac.
- Utter Command for Dragon NaturallySpeaking Pro , is an add-on for NaturallySpeaking that uses an intuitive speech command system and set of applets to speed computer control across all programs. Utter Command lets you speak in command phrases, enables the commandline interface, allows you to place and click the mouse using a single speech command and allows you to go directly to a file, folder, website or keyword using a single command.
- Windows 7 Speech Recognition comes standard with the Windows 7 operating system. It works best with Microsoft applications.
- Kurzweil 1000 and 3000 software allows the user to scan printed pages or image files, converts them to text and reads them out loud to the user. Kurzweil 3000 also has additional study tools such as highlighting, note taking, reading the web, dictionary and thesaurus.
- Omnipage software converts paper and computer based image files (TIFFs, PDFs) into text files that can be used with screen reading software.
Keyboards
- Adesso Tru-Form Pro
- Apple Keyboard with Number Pad
- Apple Magic Keyboard
- Comfort ErgoFlex
- Evoluent Mouse-Friendly
- Goldtouch (Go!2 Mobile and V2 Comfort)
- Kinesis Advantage 2 (Standard and Low Force)
- Kinesis Freestyle2
- Logitech Multi-Device Keyboard
- Matias Quiet Pro Mechanical Keyboard
- Matias Mini Quiet Pro Mechanical Keyboard
- Microsoft Natural
- Microsoft Sculpt Ergonomic Desktop Keyboard
- Mini
- Wetkeys Soft-Touch Comfort Keyboard
TrackballsVertical Pointing Devices
- 3M Ergonomic Mouse (RH)
- AirO2bic Mouse (formerly Quill)
- DTX Ergonomic Mouse
- Evoluent Vertical Mouse
- Penguin Vertical Mouse
- Rockstick Click-Free Ergonomic Mouse
- Apple Magic Mouse
- Contour Mouse
- Goldtouch Mouse
- HandShoe Mouse
- Humanscale Switch Mouse
- Logitech G502 Proteus Core Tunable Gaming Mouse (RH)
- Logitech Performance Mouse
- OrthoMouse
- Penclic Mouse
- RollerMouse Red
- RollerMouse Free2
- Trackbar Emotion