Assistive Technology in Higher Education


Kennesaw State University project team

Working Together for Quicker, Easier Captioning

Kennesaw State University collaborated with its captioning vendor to develop a better solution that faculty would actually use.

Data Analytics and Student Advising: Creating a Culture Shift on Campus

By nature, an initiative that employs data analytics for student advising is built on the latest technology. But for Syracuse University, technology is always looked upon as a path to a solution; not a driver of change in itself. Find out why understanding campus culture is central to the university's "Orange SUccess" initiative.

OLC Research Center

Report: Accessibility in Digital Learning Increasingly Complex

The Online Learning Consortium has introduced a series of original reports to keep people in education up-to-date on the latest developments in the field of digital learning. The first report covers accessibility and addresses both K-12 and higher education. The series is being produced by O.L.C.'s Research Center for Digital Learning & Leadership.

laptop computer with play icon on screen

Video Captioning on the Rise for Both Social Access and Compliance

Captioning in video, while still not the norm, is on the rise. While just 34 percent of respondents to a 2017 survey on the topic said they caption all of their videos, that grew to 36 percent in 2018 — even as the share of organizations that are publishing more than 500 hours of video content annually is growing (up from 17 percent last year to 29 percent this year). These responses surfaced during a survey on the "State of Captioning," produced by 3PlayMedia.

McMaster University

McMaster Infusing Campus with Accessibility Awareness

An Ontario, Canada institution is drawing attention to its accessibility initiatives and resources. On December 3, in celebration of the International Day of People with Disabilities, McMaster University will award its first accessibility award to honor accessibility efforts on campus. Shortly, it will also publish an accessibility and disability inclusion update to profile the work being done on campus.

wired brain illustration

Startup Uses AI and Human Augmentation for Video/Audio Transcription

A startup based in Israel has raised $11 million to expand the growth of its solution for doing artificial-intelligence-powered transcription. Verbit technology, according to the company, will be helpful to schools in addressing the Americans with Disabilities Act regulation.

finger pointing to digital document icons

Making Progress on Course Content Accessibility

New tools are helping colleges and universities tackle the accessibility of instructor-created content, student coursework, note-taking and more.

hands typing on laptop computer

Blackboard Intros Web Accessibility Checker

Blackboard today introduced Blackboard Ally for Web, a solution for assessing and improving the accessibility of institutions' websites. The tool expands on Blackboard's Ally product (launched last year), which focuses on the accessibility of course materials in learning management systems.

Echo360 Integrates Amazon Transcribe Automated Speech Recognition

Echo360 is teaming up with Amazon Web Services to make video content more accessible. The company today announced it will integrate Amazon Transcribe automated speech recognition technology into its video platform, giving each recording a viewable, searchable transcript.

Microsoft AI Gives Deaf RIT Students Auto-Captioning Boost in Lecture Presentations

The Rochester Institute of Technology is one of nine colleges to pilot the use of an artificial intelligence-powered speech and language technology that Microsoft has produced. Microsoft's Translator for Education provides the intelligence behind Presentation Translator, a Microsoft "garage project" that breaks down the language barrier by letting users offer continually updated subtitled presentations from PowerPoint. As the presenter speaks in one of 10 supported languages, the add-in generates subtitles directly under the presentation in any of 60 different text languages.