Tara Corman and Phil Retief both work at the Academic Success Centre (ASC) at UFV, where Corman is the learning strategist and Retief is a peer tutor. The ASC is currently offering a new program, facilitated by Retief: the Accessibility Lab. Retief says that the purpose of the lab is to help students “explore adaptive technologies that can help them or aid them in their academic journey.” Corman specified, “we wanted to make adaptive technology more available to all UFV students.”
The Accessibility Lab, less than two months old, currently runs out of room G126 at the Abbotsford campus on Tuesdays from 12-2 p.m., sharing a space with the Abby ASC. Chilliwack’s ASC is located in room A1204, and both Corman and Retief encourage students who attend the Chilliwack campus and are interested in the program, to book a peer tutoring appointment with Retief.
Corman spoke of how the Accessibility Lab came to be: “Through the Academic Success Center… each semester we have an all-staff training day, and in the fall we had one that included some brainstorming around different values and priorities for the Academic Success Centre. One of the topics was inclusive space and services, and Phil had written out on one of his Post-its, the idea of an accessibility lab. We carried it forward into meetings with the Centre for Accessibility Services and the Academic Success Centre coordinator, and they’ve been able to implement it into something that I think is quite innovative.”
Retief recounted a recent experience with a student who was struggling to read course materials the way they were presented by the professor. Through the Lab, they were able to identify a software that better supported the student, and made the materials more accessible. Students may face unique challenges in their academic journeys, but Retief knows that overcoming these obstacles can make “a huge difference.…” “It’s a great example of how it’s been helpful for a student,” said Corman..”
The technologies that are currently available through the Accessibility Lab are Kurzweil 3000, Dragon NaturallySpeaking, and Read&Write. Retief can assist students in using Dictation in Word for Microsoft Office, and is working with the ASC on getting Speech to Text and Text to Speech set up to “help students with these functions through the Accessibility Lab,” said Corman. She went on to say that some of the technologies that the ASC uses are “expensive if you do end up purchasing a license for yourself, but the ASC has student computers in both the Abbotsford campus and the Chilliwack campus, with Kurzweil and Dragon Speak downloaded onto them.”
The resources available in the ASC provide students the chance to try out some of these programs for free, “which saves them the cost of having to maybe spend money on a new program before they see how well it actually works for them,” said Corman. “We’ve tried to focus on other programs that are free or easily accessible for students… things that are already embedded in Microsoft Word, or things that are embedded within Mac products for Mac users.”
I would encourage students to come out, check it out, and just learn more about it,” said Retief. “There’s a lot of technologies that can help students.”
Jade is an English Honours: Creative Writing student. She plans on pursuing an MFA in Creative Writing after graduating from her undergraduate degree. When she’s not in class or studying, she can be found doing karaoke at a local restaurant in hopes of getting noticed and signed to a record deal.