International Day of People with Disabilities is a day dedicated to raising awareness of the challenges faced by people with a disability.
Here at Forth Valley College, we believe there should be no barriers to education and everyone should be treated equally. We have a dedicated learning support team and have several tools that can support students when either applying to college or during their studies, including:
Accessibility tools to help both prospective and current students find out information:
ReciteMe – this cloud-based accessibility tool available on our website, helps users customise our website in a way which works for them. The toolbar is accessed via the top navigation menu and offers features such as a screen reader, reading support, styling and translation.
Digital tools that support learning available to all students, via their student profile:
Read&Write – offers support with everyday tasks like reading the text aloud, creating MP3 versions of resources, understanding unfamiliar words, researching assignments and proofing written work. It can also be used as a digital reader for assessments and exams, assisting students who are entitled to extra help in the exam room.
Inspiration – mind mapping is a beneficial learning tool to help students brainstorm any topic and think creatively. Mind maps are particularly helpful in the writing process and provide students with a natural way of thinking and building thoughts on a story plot or theme.
Office 365 – read more effectively with learning tools that read text out loud, break words into syllables, and identify parts of speech. Sustain attention with a focus mode and adjustable spacing between lines, letters and words. Available for OneNote, Word, and Outlook on various devices.
Available to students specifically through a learning support needs assessment:
MindView - MindView AT has been designed to help visual thinkers create impressive written assignments and presentations. The smooth transition from a Mind-Map to Word and PowerPoint means students can make powerful, formatted documents ready for assessment. The added assistive technology software functionality, including text-to-speech, dragon integration, predictive text, and audio notes, make MindView the industry leader in mind mapping for assistive purposes.
Sonocent Audio Notetaker – captures audio, text and slides in a single note-taking workspace. Allows you to organise and categorise note sets so you can easily return to them. It helps you turn your notes into a variety of formats to suit your learning style.
Dragon Professionally Speaking – up to 99% speech recognition accuracy right out of the box. This Speech recognition software allows you to create, format and edit documents and emails just by speaking. You can search the web faster than ever using simple voice commands.
Livescribe – this is a smartpen that saves notes & pen casts directly to your computer. You can record everything you hear, say and write, while linking your audio recordings to your notes, then replay audio directly from paper by tapping on your notes. The desktop software allows you to save, organise and play back interactive notes from your Mac or Windows computer, and share notes and pen casts as images.
For more information on the support that is available, click here or email - digital.learning@forthvalley.ac.uk
Join the conversation and show your support for #IDPWD