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Assistive Technology Center

Located in room M126

  • Open Hours:
    Monday 9am - 5:00pm
    Tuesday 9am - 5:00pm
    Wednesday 9am - 5:00pm
    Thursday 9am - 5:00pm
    Friday 9am - 2:00pm

Welcome to the Access‐Ability Services Assistive Technology Center (ATC). We are located in Room M‐126 in the Marine and Academic Center (MAC). The ATC is where students registered with Access-Ability Services can go to use computers to complete schoolwork and receive technological assistance with software and assistive technology (see list below).

Located in room M-126

Hours of Operation: Monday Through Friday, 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM

What is Assistive Technology?

Assistive Technology is technology designed to compensate for disability and foster student independence. Assistive Technology is any item, equipment, software application or system used to increase, maintain, or improve access to information or facilities for individuals with disabilities. The ATC offers a wide array of hardware and software for students with disabilities, which include:

Audio Recording / Audio Playback Devices

Usable for taping of class lectures in order to enable review. They also provide students with access to audio versions of books provided by various sources.

Braille

Conversion of text to Braille to be read by students who are Braille readers. Files can be printed (embossed) on site, or read by students who have a refreshable Braille display.

CCTV

An electronic magnifier that can magnify material up to 44 times its original size. By placing viewing material under a built in camera, the user can zoom in to the desired enlargement and view the document on the attached monitor. Color, contrast and highlight adjustments are possible.

Digital Smart Pen

The Livescribe 3 Smartpen system consists of a digital pen, specially designed paper, and a mobile application. A Bluetooth connected ballpoint pen with an embedded sensor is used with a smartphone or tablet to allow users to pair their notes with audio recordings from the time of notetaking. This allows users to replay portions of a recording by tapping on the notes they were taking at the time the recording was made.

Height Adjustable Tables

Provide wheelchair users and other mobility impaired people access to desktop work areas.

Scanning

Scanners are commonly used in conjunction with Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software to create electronic/digital versions of printed materials and books to be used with other assistive technologies.

Optical Character Recognition

Optical Character Recognition (OCR) Software allows users to turn physical or inaccessible documents into editable digital files. Students can turn printed documents into typed Microsoft Word documents, as well as other formats.

Reader Pens

Reader Pens allow users to have paper documents and books read aloud to them through a speaker or through headphones. The speed of the voice can be adjusted.

Reading & Writing Software Suites

This software assists students whose disabilities affect their reading comprehension and/or writing skills. Text is read aloud and each spoken word is highlighted on the monitor. Students can pause on any word and have instant access to dictionary, thesaurus, pronunciation, and note-taking features. Materials can be opened from a file, scanned in, or created within the program. Document can be saved to other formats as well.

Screen Enlargers

Students with low vision can magnify their computer screens by an adjustable amount. Magnification can be used together with speech output.

Screen Readers

Screen readers read text, labels and other objects displayed on a computer screen aloud, allowing blind or low vision users to operate the computer.

Tablet Loaning

The ATC loans iPads to Access-Ability Students. These iPads include academic apps.

Voice Recognition Software

Allows the user to create documents and navigate through programs by speaking into a microphone using specialized commands and prompts.

Borrowing Policy

There are several types of equipment available to be borrowed by students for academic use. Students interested in borrowing equipment should contact AAS at 718-368-5175 for availability and borrowing contract information. 

Contact the ATC

The center may be closed occasionally for maintenance, testing or workshops, so if you need to make sure the ATC is open, please call 718-368-5175. If you have any questions about the office, please feel free to contact your AAS counselor or Benjamin Hanon, our Assistive Technology Specialist.

Benjamin.Hanon@kbcc.cuny.edu

(718) 368-5175 extension 3382