Reading Services and Adaptive Technology

Reading services are provided to students with permanent or temporary disabilities who provide appropriate documentation and meet the eligibility requirements. You will first need to meet with your specialist who will determine what types of reading services would be most helpful to you. DSP offers Adaptive Technology such as Kurzweil, E-Texts, and more to eligible students.

 

reading Braille with fingers

Kurzweil Text Recognition Software Training

The first step in obtaining reading services is to get trained on the Kurzweil text recognition software:

  1. Request the software from DSP's Adaptive Technology Specialist via an email to sa-dspadaptivetech@ucsb.edu.
  2. Attend the scheduled training and/or watch the adjacent tutorial video.
  3. Decide if you want to use the Kurzweil text recognition software.

If you want to use the Kurzweil Software after you are trained:

  • Submit a request for electronic texts from DSP by filling out an Alternate Text Form.
  • Be sure to submit this form early. If you don't have a list of books for your course yet, you can get the required information from the UCSB Bookstore online
  • The Adaptive Technology Specialist will contact you when these texts become available. If E-Texts are not available, they will contact you to see if you are agreeable to breaking the spine of your physical book so an E-Text can be produced from it.

If you DO NOT want to use the Kurzweil Software:

If you feel that the text recognition software is not helpful, see your Disabilities Specialist about using Learning Ally's resources.

  • Before making the appointment, check to see if Learning Ally (learningally.org) has the books you need.
  • During your meeting, your Disabilities Specialist will have you complete a release form and an application which DSP will fax directly to Learning Ally.
  • After DSP has faxed your application to Learning Ally, you correspond directly with Learning Ally regarding any resources you might need from them. While more and more resources are in MP-3 format, DSP can loan you Daisy readers if needed for books on CDs.