Cornell University's Albert R. Mann Library now has a one-stop computer workstation that allows the visually impaired to convert text to Braille, scan a document and convert the text to speech, or scan a page and magnify it many times.

Working in partnership with Cornell's Office of Equal Opportunity, the new workstation can provide access to adaptive technology that will help people with visual disabilities, as well as administrative units that need to provide materials in alternative formats.

"The adaptive technology workstation has several software and hardware components that can assist people needing alternative modes of access to print materials," said Tom Turner, public services librarian, Mann Library. The station is composed of an IBM PC and has an Arkenstone scanner, a DecTalkPC speech synthesizer and a Romeo Brailler. It is located on the second floor, in the reference area of the library.

Two software programs convert text to Braille. A DOS-based program, Jaws, converts text that appears on the screen into sound, allowing it to read computer menu items or text typed into DOS software. Turner said this program will help visually impaired users make use of the other DOS programs that are on the workstation. MegaDots, another program, enables users to convert ASCII text into Grade II Braille, which can be output using the Romeo Brailler, he said.

Another program -- An Open Book -- enables the workstation to convert text to sound. This Arkenstone product works with a scanner to capture an image of a printed text. It runs an optical character recognition (OCR) program over the image as well as a word-to-speech converter. These programs allow the speech synthesizer to read the page that has been scanned, Turner said. The process takes but a few seconds and uses few keystrokes. Headphones are available for use with the system.

The last element of the station is a magnification program called VisAbility. This program also works with the scanner but allows the user to magnify the page. Like An Open Book, Turner said this software is simple to use and takes only a few seconds for nearly instant magnification.

Cornell's Office of Equal Opportunity was provided with funding for these materials, while Mann Library provides space and technical support for the resources. Most of the funds came from the Ridley Foundation, which has played a key role in helping Cornell obtain technology to support people with disabilities. SUNY also contributed substantial funds to assist with services for students (in statutory programs) with disabilities.

For more information, contact Tom Turner in the Public Services Department at Mann Library with questions about these resources or to make an appointment to learn how to use them. He can be reached at (607) 255-7960. His e-mail address is tpt2@cornell.edu.