Tori Shann, alternative text and access coordinator, said any student with a diagnosed disability can check out assistive technology devices. 

“I know a lot of student population we see get kind of turned away when they hear that. But, it can be anything ranging from physical mobility issues, ADHD, autism or dyslexia. There’s a wide array of different reasons a student could qualify for our services,” Shann said. 

AAS can lend technology such as laptops and iPads to students, as well as other less common devices. 

“We have Livescribe pens, which is kind of like a recorder built into a pen. We’ve got just your old typical recorders. We have a thing called a Language Master, it’s kind of like a digital dictionary. That’s really cool. We also have C-pens, and OCR pens, which will scan text and read it out loud to students that may have dyslexia or reading comprehension issues,” Shann said. 

They said assistive technology can also include low-tech communication boards made of cardboard or felt cutouts, or higher-tech speech-to-text and text-to-speech devices. 

They said assistive technology helps create equal access for everyone. 

“You never really understand the full impact a disability can have on someone’s life and all the things that they can struggle with because of that. Technology, especially nowadays, helps someone with ADHD, all the technology with reminders and all those things you can set on your phone. We’ve got students with little to no vision (who use) screen readers, that way they can still access the computer and they can still be a part of today’s society,” Shann said.

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