Reprinted from the Reference Services Review, this article by TomMcNulty describes the services that the New York University provides for students with disabilities. New York University services include providing special access to the automated catalogue, various on-line databases and scanning print documents into electronic formats. This scanned text can be accessed by persons with visual impairments via screen-enlarging software on a computer, or blind patrons can have information from the screen display read to them through a speech synthesizer. The university has also set up a Braille desktop publishing system to produce such electronic text in Braille for users who prefer that format. This system was of particular help to the university's first deaf/blind student.
by Tom McNulty
Bobst Library
New York University
Reprinted from Reference Services Review, Pierian Press, Vol. 21, #1, 1993.
Over the past two decades, a number of social and legislative forces have had the effect of increasing disabled peoples' attendance at institutions of higher education. Major national legislation, such as the landmark 1975 Education for All Handicapped Children Act (1), has mandated equal access for people with disabilities to educational programs recipient of federal funding. The more recent Americans with Disabilities Act (2) was signed into law by President Bush on July 26, 1990; considered by some the "Bill of Rights" for people with disabilities, the ADA extends opportunity in the areas of employment, housing, and a number of other basic civil rights. The past two decades have seen advances in technology which have had an equally dramatic impact on the types and quality of service libraries can offer their print-handicapped clientele. Information accessible by computer can be produced in large print, manipulated with a screen-reading program and synthetic speech, printed in Braille or read by touch with a "soft Braille" device. In this article, I will describe the library services provided to the first deaf-blind person to attend New York University, concentrating on the production of Braille readings not available through conventional sources. Before outlining the technologies available for the rapid production of materials in Braille, I will briefly describe the coordination of services for disabled students at NYU, as well as the history of Braille and Braille publishing.
Services for students with disabilities are coordinated by the University's Center for Students with Disabilities. Here, counselors determine the student's needs on an individual basis, and present a written accommodation plan which may include such library services as retrieval of materials from the stacks, photocopying of reserve and reference materials, access to adaptive computer equipment, etc. The Center employs one part- time assistant who in the past was primarily responsible for photocopying articles and reserve readings and helping students to retrieve materials from the stacks. The responsibilities of this position have grown to include scanning print materials to floppy disk for output in formats accessible to the print-impaired reader, including Braille and synthetic speech. Approximately 200 print-impaired students are registered for services with the Center. Of these, approximately 140 have learning disabilities of varying degrees of severity. Of the 60 visually impaired, most have some degree of vision; fewer than six totally blind students are currently registered for services. Much of the University's adaptive computer equipment is housed in the Library's Microcomputer Center. Equipped with a Novell network, the Microcomputer Center offers access to a number of on-line sources including BobCat (the on-line catalog), RLIN and Dialog. In addition, software packages including WordPerfect and D-Base III+ can be accessed from adaptive workstations equipped with synthetic speech and large print displays. A Braille printer and translation program (described below) are the latest additions to our inventory of adaptive equipment. When NYU's first deaf/blind student was accepted by the university for the fall, 1991 semester, it became clear that a great deal of planning would be required, since all of his reading material would have to be produced in Braille if not already available in that format. As a graduate student in the department of deafness rehabilitation, he has a considerable amount of research, as well as regularly assigned readings in professional journals, all of which must be accessible in Braille. Months before his arrival at NYU, counselors at the Center for Students with Disabilities contacted professors and attempted to get course outlines and reading lists. Working in concert with the Library, staff of the Center for Students with Disabilities set out to equip the library for desktop Braille publishing capability. Within the library, specialized services for readers with disabilities are coordinated by the reference department. This seems to be the trend at many academic and research libraries, according to a recently published survey by the Association of Research Libraries.(3) Bibliographic instruction, beginning with specialized orientations to the library's services and facilities, is an important component of disabled students' library service. The provision of point-of-use instructional materials, individual reference consultations, and specialized training in the use of equipment round out the list of services provided by the reference staff. Everything from class notes and syllabi to dining hall menus (which change weekly) must be supplied in Braille for our new student's effective participation in university life. Our turnaround time for the production of most materials is two-three days, roughly the equivalent amount of time required to fill the photocopy requests of other disabled students.
Braille, the reading and writing system for visually impaired readers that uses raised dots to represent numbers and letters of the alphabet, was introduced in the early nineteenth century by Louis Braille. The idea of using a series of raised dots to represent numbers and letters was already being used in the "night writing" code developed by Nicholas Barbier for the French army. Barbier used a "cell" composed of twelve dots to facilitate communication on the dark battlefield (4), while Braille devised the six-dot arrangement still in use today by most of the world's languages. Many people think of Braille as the primary information medium of blind and visually impaired readers. This hasn't been the case since the 1930s, when the circulation of "Talking Books" (first as phonograph records, later audio cassettes) exceeded that of Braille titles (5). The new audio technology had two advantages over Braille: tapes and records were much less bulky than Braille, and production costs were significantly lower as well.(6) Microcomputer technology has created even more options for the print-impaired reader. Screen-reading programs provide aural access to the computer display for low vision or blind readers. Some of the computers at the Boston College Library, for example, are equipped with IBM Screen Readers, synthetic speech devices that read aloud what appears on a computer screen.(7) Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology, including stand- alone scanners as well as more sophisticated reading machines (such as the Kurzweil products), can translate a page of text into any number of formats, including but not limited to immediate speech output.(8) Each new development in adaptive technology has had its effect on the supply and demand for titles in other formats. For college students and other academics with visual impairments, this usually means that a variety of media will be used. While students may have had time to order and receive textbooks in Braille (or on audio tape), there will be other readings assigned throughout the semester, as well as long-term research that will necessitate the student's use of a lot of material that is simply not available in an accessible format. Most of our students have a preference for one medium over the others, but will settle for the most readily obtainable for their immediate needs. Some readers, however, are unable to use the complete range of adaptive technologies due to multiple disabilities. Some blind people have limited sensitivity in their fingertips (resulting from stroke or other cause), which makes it difficult or impossible to use Braille. Deaf/blind readers, on the other hand, must use Braille as their substitute for print.
Modern Braille comprises two grades. In Grade 1 Braille, each word is spelled out, letter by letter. Grade 2 Braille consists of grade 1 as well as close to 200 contractions and abbreviated forms for frequently encountered short words and morphemes. For example suffixes, such as "ation," are assigned single or double cell representations (in the case of "ation," two cells are required). In grade 2 Braille, therefore, the word "nation" can be spelled out using just three cells: the one for the letter "n" and the two required for the contraction for "ation." "Nation" in Grade 1 Braille would require six cells - one for each letter of the word. The reader who is familiar with Grade 2 will obviously be able to read Grade 1; the reverse, however, is not necessarily true. With its use of contracted forms, Grade 2 Braille greatly reduces the volume and, consequently, the production costs of each title produced in Braille. Today, almost all Braille publications are produced in Grade 2 Braille. Braille translation systems--software programs which translate Grade 1 to contracted, Grade 2 Braille--have made possible the efficient in-house production of Braille texts. The Duxbury Braille Translation System (described below) was chosen for the Braille translation process at NYU's Bobst Library. But before describing the equipment and processes involved in Braille production, a look at the Braille publishing establishment is in order.
Back to Libraries Without Walls Page