Assistive Technology

U-M students have access to many different kinds of assistive technology that can be acquired independently or borrowed from SSD. Below are some of the technologies we may offer or recommend based on every individual's needs. Note that SSD offers free access to some, but not all, of these technologies, and some may require paid subscriptions.

The options for each category are generally listed from most to least popular. This list is not exhaustive and mayu change over time. Feel free to direct any technology questions to SSDRequest@umich.edu and/or schedule a meeting with the Assistive Technology Accommodations Specialist on Accommodate who can demonstrate any of these technologies and discuss your technology options with you.

Check out more software that U-M students have access to at ITS's Software Directory.

 

Helpful terms:

Optical Character Recognition (OCR): Technology that converts images of text (printed or handwritten) into machine-encoded text that can be read out loud by a device.

Talking book: Audiobook technology designed specifically to be used by blind or low vision users that integrates descriptions of images and all textual content with the text itself, usually with players made specifically for this audience.

User Interface (UI): The parts of technology that a user interacts with, for ex. the ways that icons are arranged on a smartphone.

 

Notetaking software

  • Google Docs
    • Best for: Users who desire a completely free note-taking application; ease of sharing; a straightforward user-interface; those who do not need complex visual features (it has a simple drawing feature, the ability to attach images, and a limited number of templates); robust troubleshooting documents (but not phone or live chat support); those who do not need to protect documents with high security
    • Intended audience: Anyone
  • Microsoft OneNote
    • Best for: Users who desire a free note-taking application (with the option to pay more for storage and premium features); ease of sharing; straightforward user-interface; slightly more advanced visual features (such as the ability to draw on documents); robust troubleshooting resources (including phone support); the ability to make files and sections password-protected
    • Intended audience: Anyone
  • Notion
    • Best for: Collaboration and group project management; audio transcription
    • Intended audience: Anyone
  • Notability
    • Best for: Taking notes on PDFs; handwriting notes on a tablet; users who want to make their own visuals and have customizable visual features (ex. creating stickers, size of lined of dotted templates); audio notes and transcription; the ability to use a split screen to view more than one note at a time
    • Intended audience: Anyone
  • Goodnotes
    • Best for: Using note-taking templates; collaborating on visual elements with others; easy sharing; syncing audio/lecture recordings with notes
    • Intended audience: Anyone
  • Drawboard PDF
    • Best for: Taking notes on PDFs; easy sharing
    • Intended audience: Anyone
  • Genio
    • Best for: In-class lecture note-taking; audio recording and transcription; practicing presentations with Genio Present.
    • SSD has a limited number of licenses to provide to users connected with SSD for notetaking accommodations.
    • Intended audience: Students with disabilities that affect executive functioning and/or physical notetaking ability; students with social anxiety
  • Joplin
    • Best for: Users who desire a completely free note-taking application; end-to-end encryption
    • Intended audience: Anyone

 

Notetaking hardware

  • iPad with Attachable Keyboard and Apple Pencil
    • Best for: Notetaking applications; the ability to write, draw, or type; keeping course materials in one lightweight place; ability to sync accounts across Apple devices
    • Intended audience: Students with disabilities that affect executive functioning and/or physical notetaking ability; students who are unable to bear heavy weight
  • Remarkable 2 Tablet
    • Best for: Taking notes with a screen made of a paperlike display; maintaining focus with minimal features. Note that the ReMarkable is not able to connect to MWireless or MGuest.
    • Intended audience: Students with disabilities that affect executive funcitoning and/or physical notetaking ability; students who are unable to bear heavy weight
  • Livescribe Echo II Smart Pen
    • Best for: Users who handwrite their notes; syncing notes to audio recordings
    • Intended audience: Students with disabilities that affect executive functioning
  • Voice recorder
    • Best for: Verbal notes; recording lectures or discussions
    • Intended audience: Students with disabilities that affect executive functioning

 

Noise mitigation

  • Noise isolation headphones
    • Best for: Canceling out almost all outside noise
    • Intended audience: Students with disabilities that affect executive functioning
  • Noise reduction headphones
    • Best for: Reducing outside noise and connecting with a device via audio jack to focus on listening to something
    • Intended audience: Students with disabilities that affect executive functioning
  • White noise machine
    • Best for: Using consistent background noise to focus
    • Intended audience: Students with disabilities that affect executive functioning

 

Non-Verbal Communication

  • UbiDuo
    • Best for: Typed communication between two people that does not require an external wireless connection or use of a student's personal device. Some models have TTS enabled.
    • Intended audience: Students with speech disabilities; students who are Deaf or hard of hearing; students with auditory processing disabilities

 

Voice Amplification

  • Amp Up
    • Best for: Amplifying the user's voice
    • Intended audience: Students with speech disabilities
  • Bluetooth speakers/transmitters
    • Best for: Amplifying a user's voice
    • Intended audience: Students whose disability requires them to tune into an in-person class remotely with an avatar; students who user text to speech to communicate and need their speech to be amplified

 

Hearing amplification

  • Cochlear Mini Microphone 2+
    • Best for: Cochlear implants users; large or noisy settings such as lecture halls
    • Intended audience: Students who are Deaf or hard of hearing
  • Roger NeckLoop, Roger X Receiver, Roger Table Mic II
    • Best for: Cochlear implant and hearing aid users; small group discussions
    • Intended audience: Students who are Deaf or hard of hearing
  • Rode Wireless Go II
    • Best for: Cochlear implant and hearing aid users as well as hard-of-hearing users who would like to use headphones to listen to a talk; listening to and recording two speakers simultaneously
    • Intended audience: Students who are Deaf or hard of hearing
  • xTag Microphone
    • Best for: Using in tandem with CART to provide captioning during lectures and discussions
    • Intended audience: Students who are Deaf or hard of hearing
  • Littmann CORE Digital Stethoscope
    • Best for: Amplifying internal parts of the body more than the average stethoscope; noise cancellation
    • Intended audience: Students who are Deaf or hard of hearing

 

Text to Speech (TTS)

  • Microsoft Office's Read Aloud function
    • Best for: Documents and live conversation; a free option that can read basic texts with few specialized words or acronyms fairly well in over 40 languages.
    • Intended audience: Students with disabilities that affect executive functioning; students who are blind or have low vision; students with speech disabilities
  • Adobe Acrobat's TTS function
    • Best for: PDFs; a free option (UM students have free access to the full Adobe suite) that can read basic texts with few specialized words or acronyms in English (does not do well with other languages)
    • Intended audience: Students with disabilities that affect executive functioning; students who are blind or have low vision
  • Android's Select to Speak function
    • Best for: Android users who seek a free, built-in accessibility feature; the ability to use a camera to apply OCR to images containing text; users who seek a TTS that can read to them in the background while they simultaneously perform other tasks on the same device; verbal description for images
    • Intended audience: Students with disabilities that affect executive functioning; students who are blind or have low vision
  • Apple's Live Speech function
    • Best for: Apple users who seek a free, built-in accessibility feature; participation in live conversations; the ability to customize, save, and quickly use favorite phrases
    • Intended audience: Students with disabilities that affect executive functioning; students who are blind or have low vision
  • Read&Write
    • Best for: Documents; saving and correcting the pronunciations of words of your choice; reading and saving text on PDFs; scanning physical documents into accessible PDFs that can then be read aloud; screen-masking tools. All U-M affiliates have free access.
    • Intended audience: Students with disabilities that affect executive functioning; students who are blind or have low vision
  • Speechify
    • Best for: Paid AI voices that sound more fluid than the free options on the market; reading PDFs via OCR. Any U-M student can request premium access from ITS for a limited duration of time.
    • Intended audience: Students with disabilities that affect executive functioning; students who are blind or have low vision
  • Read Aloud browser extension for Chrome, Firefox, and Edge
    • Best for: Web pages; a free option that can use "Reading Mode" to convert web pages into material that can be more easily read by its TTS tool
    • Intended audience: Students with disabilities that affect executive functioning; students who are blind or have low vision
  • Balabolka
    • Best for: Windows users (not compatible with Apple) who seek a free option; customizing the way sentences and/or paragraphs are highlighted as they are being read aloud; customizing pronunciation; importing different paid voices from CereProc
    • Intended audience: Students with disabilities that affect executive functioning; students who are blind or have low vision
  • CPEN TTS reader
    • Best for: Physical texts
    • Intended audience: Students with disabilities that affect executive functioning; students who are blind or have low vision

 

Dictation, voice recognition, and voice input

  • Microsoft Word Dictation Tool and Google Voice Typing
    • Best for: Users who desire free, widely available, and fairly accurate options that are available on computers and mobile devices with very little set-up required; short-form content; dictation for basic, non-specialized content that does not require heavy proofreading; dictation in languages other than English
    • Intended audience: Students with disabilities that affect executive functioning and/or physical note-taking ability; students who are blind or have low vision
  • Speechnotes
    • Best for: Intuitive user interface; longer form content; users who just want basic functions outside of dictation (such as emailing documents); users who may be interested in a low-cost premium version that offers troubleshooting and additional capacities
    • Intended audience: Students with disabilities that affect executive functioning and/or physical note-taking ability; students who are blind or have low vision
  • (Nuance) Dragon Anywhere
    • Best for: Customizable and adaptable dictation software that uses AI to learn custom words of your choice and your specific vocal patterns; users who write with specialized terms (such as medical or legal words); fairly large library of voice commands for more sophisticated editing; a company with a long history in dictation and robust support documents and manuals; mobile device users (Apple or Android) who can sync their documents to a Windows desktop application; users willing to pay a monthly subscription fee; dictation in English, Dutch, and French
    • Intended audience: Students with disabilities that affect executive functioning and/or physical note-taking ability; students who are blind or have low vision
  • Equatio
    • Best for: Mathematical phrases and equations
    • Intended audience: Students with disabilities that affect executive functioning and/or physical note-taking ability; students who are blind or have low vision

 

Concept mapping

  • Canva
    • Best for: Intuitive user interface with easy sharing capabilities; wide variety of visual elements and templates even with the free version
    • Intended audience: Students with disabilities that affect executive functioning
  • Miro
    • Best for: Intuitive user interface; visual collaboration; easy to learn with many video tutorials; users who don't need to create many maps or are willing to pay for the ability to make more maps
    • Intended audience: Students with disabilities that affect executive functioning
  • XMind
    • Best for: Intuitive user interface; helpful templates; sharing with others and commenting on each other's maps; users who don't need to create many maps or are willing to pay for the ability to make more maps
    • Intended audience: Students with disabilities that affect executive functioning
  • FigJam
    • Best for: Students and educators (who receive the tool for free); intuitive user interface; easy collaboration
    • Intended audience: Students with disabilities that affect executive functioning
  • LucidChart
    • Best for: Converting existing Google Sheets, Excel, and CSV files into maps; greater automation (ex. conditional formatting to automate color coding; auto-generating sequence diagrams); layering elements of the map on top of each other; the ability to connect with other apps like Jira, Confluence, Microsoft Teams, Slack, and Notion; robust troubleshooting opportunities
    • Intended audience: Students with disabilities that affect executive functioning
  • Ivvi Notes
    • Best for: Users who prefer to think through things in an auditory way (the application uses AI to convert audio recordings into a mind map and allows users to play back the part of the recording that informed each branch of the map); customizable visual elements; users who are able to pay a subscription fee
    • Intended audience: Students with disabilities that affect executive functioning

 

Screen overlays and digital color masking tools

Note: Use digital overlays with caution. Some overlays may not thoroughly ask for consent before collecting personal data about the user, may be misleading about their products, or may even interfere with the normal functioning of a screen reader. For more info, see this Overlay Fact Sheet.

  • Color filters on Windows, display settings on iPhones, and display settings on Macs
    • Best for: Adjustments in color, contrast, and font/cursor size; users who seek free, built-in tools
    • Intended audience: Students whose disabilities require softer screen lighting; students who are colorblind; students who have low vision
  • Beeline Reader
    • Best for: Changing the color of the text on your screen to help your eyes follow the words on the page; users of Bookshare (which offers a free version); browsers (for three websites of your choice for free)
    • Intended audience: Students with disabilities that affect executive functioning
  • Dyslexia Friendly
    • Best for: Web pages; changing the font and spacing of text and other visual enhancements that can make it easier for a dyslexic person to read
    • Intended audience: Students with dyslexia
  • MyStudyBar

    • Best for: Windows users seeking a free suite of digital overlays.

      Recommended screen overlays functions within it are:

      • Vu Bar: a ruler that helps the user focus on reading one line of text at a time
      • T Bar: an adjustable color-masking tool that overlays a rectangle of color in your choice of size over any part of your screen (ex. Could be the size of a document or the size of a line of text)
      • ssOverlay: bathes the entire screen in a single color and saturation level of your choice
    • Intended audience: Students whose disabilities require softer screen lighting; students with disabilities that affect executive functioning

 

Physical screen adjustments

  • Crossbow Dyslexia/Visual Stress Aid and other colored screen overlays available at online retailers like Amazon
    • Best for: Users who prefer to forgo the set-up of a digital overlay, use a device that does not have digital overlays available, or prefer colors that are not traditionally offered in digital overlays.
    • Intended audience: Students whose disabilities require softer screen lighting
  • Physical screen extender
    • Best for: Users who want to have an additional screen connected to their laptop to view or magnify more than one window at the same time more easily
    • Intended audience: Students with low vision; students with disabilities that affect executive functioning

 

Screen magnification

  • Microsoft Magnifier
    • Best for: Windows users who seek a user friendly, built-in magnifying feature that doubles as a TTS tool with limited voices
    • Intended audience: Students who have low vision
  • Mac Vision Tools (particularly Zoom and Magnifier)
    • Best for: Apple users who seek user-friendly, built-in features; settings that work in tandem across Apple devices
    • Inteded audience: Students who have low vision
  • ZoomText (Available on ALL public sites machines throughout campus)
    • Best for: A screen magnifier with several additional features, such as screen enhancements (like magnifying or pinpointing the cursor), TTS, and navigation tools; Windows users (the newest versions are only compatible with Windows because many Apple users prefer to user Apple's built-in magnification systems)
    • Intended audience: Students who have low vision

 

Screen readers

  • JAWS (Not free for an individual subscription but is available for free on ALL public sites machines throughout campus)
    • Best for: Fairly extensive browser, operating system and format compatability (but only supported on Windows operating systems); customizable key strokes; features beyond just TTS, like AI tools that are used to analyze images or summarize web pages; the ability to OCR; free tech support and many support articles; ability to support over 25 languages and multiple synthesizers (voices)
    • Intended audience: Students who are blind or have low vision
  • NVDA (Free and Available on ALL public sites machines throughout campus)
    • Best for: Users who desire free and open source technology for a Windows operating system; Chrome, Firefox, and Edge users; the ability to use OCR; those who do not mind downloading add-ons for additional features; extensive language support (over 50 different languages); strong Braille support
    • Intended audience: Students who are blind or have low vision
  • Microsoft Narrator
    • Best for: Windows 10 or 11 users who seek a built-in application; users who are comfortable with standard, non-customizable keystrokes; strong Braille support; the ability to support 30 languages with multiple synthesizers (voices); users who do not need OCR
    • Intended audience: Students who are blind or have low vision
  • Mac VoiceOver (Available on ALL public Macs throughout campus)
    • Best for: Apple users who seek a built-in application; strong Braille support
    • Intended audience: Students who are blind or have low vision

 

Braille conversion

Converts text into a Braille format ot be embossed

  • Duxbury Braille Translation (Available for free at computers at The Knox Center)
    • Best for: The ability to support over 180 languages
    • Intended audience: Students who are blind or have low vision
  • RoboBraille
    • Best for: Free text conversion; the ability to support 14 languages.
    • Intended audience: Students who are blind or have low vision

 

Digital book resources

  • Bookshare
    • Best for: Books, textbooks, and periodicals; a free resource for all U.S. students with qualifying disabilities.
    • Intended audience: students who are blind or have low vision; students whose disabilities affect executive functioning
  • Project Gutenberg
    • Best for: Books in the public domain; ability to download as Kindle books, ebooks, or read as plain text
    • Intended audience: Students who are blind or have low vision; students whose disabilities affect executive functioning
  • Audiobook software such as talking books through BARD (available via the Washtenaw Library for the Blind and Print Disabled) and audiobooks through the UM Library, the Libby app, Libro.fm, LibriVox, or Audible.
    • Best for: Literature, especially contemporary books
    • Intended audience: Students who are blind or have low vision; students whose disabilities affect executive functioning

 

Ergonomic equipment

  • DocStand
    • Best for: Holding books and documents open without having to apply constant pressure
    • Intended audience: Students with mobility disabilities
  • WriteSlope
    • Best for: Portable angled writing surface
    • Intended audience: Students with mobility disabilities
  • Footrest
    • Best for: Relieving leg strain; providing support for users whose feet cannot touch the floor; improving circulation
    • Intended audience: Students with mobility disabilities
  • Ergonomic mouse
    • Best for: Easing the pain of carpal tunnel and arthritis; using a mouse with limited finger dexterity or grip
    • Intended audience: Students with mobility disabilities
  • Ergonomic keyboard
    • Best for: Easing the pain of carpal tunnel and arthritis; customization and adjustability; using a keyboard with limited finger dexterity or grip
    • Intended audience: Students with mobility disabilities
  • Wacom tablet
    • Best for: Using a tablet to handwrite/draw onto a computer
    • Intended audience: Students with mobility disabilities

 

Other technologies:

  • Franklin Portable Dictionary
    • Best for: Offline spelling support; understanding exactly what a question on a test is asking; spellcheck, thesaurus, dictionary accommodations
    • Intended audience: Students with dyslexia; students with disabilities that affect executive functioning