Megan W Morton edited sectionFuture_Work_W.tex  almost 8 years ago

Commit id: 4da1fb88f0d4c0d90f10e720046b7190be80b98b

deletions | additions      

       

\subsection{Recommendations}  In a perfect world all post secondary education institutions would support any service that their students would require. The world is not perfect however and Due to the lack of federal funding backing the Americans with Disabilities Act,  it is not possible for all post secondary post-secondary  institutions to fund and procure the hardware and software required by all students. However, in order to progress towards compliance, colleges must put concerted effort into meeting legal and industry guidelines for AT services in post-secondary education.  Outlined below is a three step program phased plan  for implementing an  AT labs. Lab.  The first step phase  is designed for post secondary institutions colleges  that are building their first AT lab lab,  and have limitations such as funding or space. The second step phase  is designed  to outline the products that most post secondary institutions could have with moderate investment help colleges identify key AT computer hardware and software  that can cover the address a  wide variety of challenges faced by a disabled user. needs.  The final step phase  is that all AT labs should strive designed  to be, with access encourage colleges  to approach AT services proactively, seeking  the best available solution devices and systems for students, rather than waiting for students  to most identified challenges faces by their users. address inaccessibility.  The services that each step will identify are broken up into the five following categories: impaired vision, blindness, speech, mobility, and facilities. The category of impaired vision is defined as: any individual who has vision loss resulting in the diminished ability to discern basic shapes and/or colors at various distances. The category of impaired vision is further broken up into services that AT labs could accommodate for which include: large print keyboards, color filtering software, and screen enlargers. The requirements for an AT lab to reach their first step include an option for a large print keyboard for each computer; basic large print keyboards can be found at prices close to their normal print counterparts. Color filtering and screen enlargement can be achieved through the additional options on the Microsoft Windows operating system. Since most computer labs will offer the Windows operating system by default both of these options can be used without anything extra. In order to reach the second step AT labs need more advanced screen enlargement software such as ZoomText (Al Squared) or MAGic (Freedom Scientific) which both offer licensing plans specific to computer labs at post secondary institutions. The AT lab also needs 19 inch or larger monitors. In order to achieve the level three an AT lab would need everything previously mentioned and monitors above 23 inches in size.