I’m Blind: What Technology Should I use at University?

This post was adapted from a comment I wrote to a parent who was unsure what technology their blind child should be using at university. It’s a question I frequently see being asked by both parents of blind children and blind teenagers who are preparing for university.

The truth is there is no singular package of technology that is going to work for every blind person. There are so many things to consider, such as whether the individual is a braille, print or duel media learner, whether they have experience using Windows or Mac and ultimately what technology feels most comfortable. Individuals also need to consider if their programme of study will require the use of any specialist software such as a statistical analysis package or music composition software.

I am a totally blind final year university student and here’s what I use. The university itself does not specify what technology the student should be using as it’s such an individual thing. Two blind people, with the same eye condition and level of vision may have wildly different preferences when it comes to technology, and neither is wrong.

Hardware

• Braille note-taking device: I use this in classes to take notes and also for easy access to braille when I am doing translations. I’m a Spanish major so I find braille essential in some of my classes. I use the BrailleNote Touch from Humanware. This is my preference as it’s a small device with a suitably long battery life. An alternative to this is a computer/iPad/iPhone with a braille display. There are a whole variety of refreshable braille displays to choose from and I’d advise checking a few out before you purchase one.
• Laptop: I prefer to take exams and write assignments on a computer as I prefer the more advanced capabilities of Microsoft office over the braille note-taker’s word processor. There isn’t one perfect laptop for a blind person, but it’s worth finding out what the system requirements are for any software you will be running on it.
• An iPhone: Whilst this isn’t a blindness specific device I use it almost constantly. It gives me easy access to emails when I’m on the move and the convenience of multilingual dictionaries. I use the phone with voiceover however there are accessibility features for a variety of disabilities.
• Digital voice recorder: I personally don’t feel like this is an essential piece of equipment as smartphones have such good recording capabilities. However if you are a student who would like to record your classes you might want to invest in one of these. I would recommend the Olympus DM-770 as it is fully accessible to people who are blind.

Software

• A screenreader: For use on the laptop. I use JAWS but have used NVDA previously and I honestly don’t have a strong preference for either of them. It’s worth noting that NVDA is free and so there’s no reason why, even if you are a JAWS user, you can’t download it and try it out. I’d honestly recommend learning to use both as there may be situations in which one screenreader can access a piece of software that the other can’t.
• Microsoft office: I regularly use Word and Powerpoint (my lecturers email me the presentations they use) but also I’m finding increasingly I need to use Excel to produce charts especially for my final year dissertation. It’s important to know how to access at least the essential functions of these programmes as you will find situations in which you need to use them throughout your degree. Many universities will give you free access to Office365 however you can also subscribe to it for an annual fee.
• OCR software: On my iPhone I use KNFB Reader and on the computer ABBYY FineReader. In an ideal world I’d be working with perfectly accessible documents, but there are times when I find a journal article that’s only available as an image based pdf and I don’t have the time to request it’s made accessible. It’s just as easy for me to run it through either of these pieces of software and I’m good to go. I’ve also found KNFB Reader useful in my personal life, for example many restaurant menus online aren’t accessible but I can access them using that app.
• Dropbox: On both the phone and pc, I use it for file sharing and storage so I have access to my documents anywhere. It’s also worth learning the Google suite of products, such as google Drive and Docs as a lot of students prefer this when they are doing group work.
• It’s also essential to be able to browse the internet, effectively search for resources such as books and journal articles and to organise all that information. I recommend Google Chrome for browsing the web.

Going to university can seem like a really overwhelming task, especially if it’s the first time you’ve had to advocate for yourself and really consider how you learn best. I’ve tried many different combinations of technology along the way and not all of them have ended up working very well for me. This is by no means a comprehensive list, it’s simply the technology that I’ve found works well for me. I hope that it can provide food for thought for both parents and blind people who are planning on entering higher education.

Lots of students rush to go to university as soon as they’ve finished school. Whilst this isn’t necessarily a bad decision I really feel like there’s nothing wrong with taking some time to think about your options if you aren’t feeling very confident. Explore the different technology that’s available to you and become confident using various different applications. It’s better to go in a year later, feeling sure that you know what you’re doing, than enter when you’re not very confident and may struggle to keep up because of it. I started university when I was 21. I’d already studied abroad, built up my self-esteem and developed an action plan for how I’d handle various situations.

My best advice is to think about your own needs. Not what I, or any other blind person needs. You know yourself best, and whilst a piece of technology might not work for me it could be the perfect fit for you.