Assistive Technologies and Services from LTS

Lehigh University's Library and Technology Services (LTS) supports assistive technology and student access in numerous ways:

• We work with the Office of Disability Support Services and other divisions to support the individual learning needs of all students, including distance students.
• We monitor, evaluate, and purchase new assistive technologies for the Lehigh community.
• We encourage our technology partners (3rd party technology vendors and service providers) to incorporate accessibility features into their products.
• We help to identify and support assistive technologies for faculty and staff.
• We maintain our facilities to provide the broadest access possible.
• We work with all campus units to promote methods of publishing information that conforms to guidelines for accessibility.

Below is a selected list of assistive technologies available at Lehigh. Note that LTS and the Office of Disability Support Services are poised to provide other services to students with needs not addressed in the list below. Please contact us to discuss your needs!

• Magnalink S portable CCTV system. This device is a video magnifier available for students with disabilities to use at the library or in a classroom. The device uses a video camera to project a magnified image of a book or blackboard to a computer monitor. For more information contact the Help Desk (610-758-4357 or helpdesk@lehigh.edu).
• Electronic textbooks. LTS and the Office of Disability Support Services make electronic resources and textbooks available to students who have qualifying disabilities. Materials are made available through Course Site, Lehigh's Web-based course management software.
• Phone devices. For staff or students with hearing impairments, the Telecommunications Office can provide amplification devices for on-campus use. For more information submit a request to our Telecommunications Office.
• Book-edge and other scanners. We offer scanners that use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) processing to convert graphical characters into text, convertible to WORD, pdf, or other formats. The documents may then be read using synthesized speech technology.
• Jaws screen reading software from Freedom Scientific.
• Captioning. We contract with captioning services to make video and audio available.

Keywords: accessibility, visual impaired, hearing impaired, universal design, disability