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Assistive Technology

Assistive technology at St. Louis Community College

Assistive technology (AT) is a term used to describe any device, software, or piece of equipment that helps in removing technological or educational barriers for an individual with a disability. At St. Louis Community College, we offer many different adaptive technology resources to students who qualify. Individuals who have been deemed eligible by the Access office can meet with the District-Wide Assistive Technology Coordinator to discuss AT options available to them and receive training on how to utilize these resources in order to access their course material. Please see the Adaptive Technology FAQs pages for detailed information.

Use Read and Write software to read your online exams to you:

Texthelp the software company that created Read and Write has extensive videos to help users with features of Read and Write.  If you would like to know more about how to use Read and Write to read your exams to you, check out this video on YouYube You should ALWAYS start Read and Write BEFORE you launch your test in Canvas or with lockdown browser.  

There are several training videos available to demonstrate most of the features in Read and Write.  Texthelp has a page with training videos to match your specific computer and software needs.  

Available assistive technology software

At St. Louis Community College, we provide a variety of software to eligible students. Some commonly provided software is listed below:

  • Read&Write Learning software - Helps students improve their confidence in reading and writing free for STLCC students
  • Thorium Reader - Thorium Reader is a free and open source EPUB reader for Windows 10, MacOS and Linux. If you receive a book in an Epub format, you NEED this reader!  FREE for all students
  • ZoomText Fusion Screen Magnifier and Screen Reader - Combines JAWS and Zoomtext to provide accessibility for a variety of low vision support.  Available through Freedom Scientific Portal click the link and enter your STLCC email address for a free download!
  • Dolphin Easy Reader  - Free textbook reader from Dolphin Products.  Use this on your phone, your PC, your Mac, or Tablet!  

Other helpful free resources for students

  • Follow this link to get instructions on how to download Microsoft  Word and others for FREE!
  • STLCC software Available for students to download FREE!  
  • Otter.ai: Free transcription app that listens to spoken word and transcribes it to text. Can be used to record and transcribe lectures, tutor sessions, even meetings. Free with limits on time.  Unlimited licenses are available through the Access offices.
  • Microsoft Dictate: This is software built into the Office 365 platform - a resource free to all STLCC students. Dictate is a Microsoft Word product that converts speech to text. For more information, please click the link.
  • Speak IT!: Similar to Microsoft Dictate, Speak IT! is text to speech software that works specifically with Google Chrome.
  • Freedom Scientific: Allows free, at-home access to JAWS and ZoomText Mag Reader. To download software, students will need to use their my.stlcc.edu email address.
  • Evernote: Take notes anywhere. Find information faster. Share ideas with anyone. Meeting notes, web pages, projects, to-do lists
  • Audionote Lite: AudioNote combines the functionality of a notepad and voice recorder to create a powerful tool that will save you time while improving the quality of your notes. It’s the perfect app for students

Downloading and installing the read&write software

St. Louis Community College makes available “Read&Write” to all students. To download this software, please follow the steps listed below.

  1. On your PC open the Microsoft App Store
  2. In the search box enter "Read and Write" without quotes.
  3. Choose: Read&Write for Windows (US English)
  4. Select Install. This is a large file, be patient.
  5. Choose Launch when the download completes.
  6. The first time you open the software after the install, you will be prompted to register. CHOOSE register with Microsoft, and enter your school email address and password when prompted. The software will register. Do NOT attempt to use other email accounts, or the software will not work.
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