Individual support services are available to assist to minimise the impact of your disability / health condition and maximise your access and participation. Outlined below is a description of the services provided by the Accessibility Service.

Please contact us if you have any questions or would like to discuss these services with an Accessibility Consultant (AC). Your AC will consult with you about your needs and decide on your eligibility for access to individual support services.

Please Note:
To receive support from the Accessibility Service, you will need to register with us.

Notetakers 

  • Notetaking services are provided to students whose disability / health condition impacts on their notetaking. For example, concentration or speed due to processing or mobility impacts.
  • Notetaking is available for scheduled class activities, most commonly Lectures but ranging through to seminars, practical classes and field trips.
  • Notetakers are casual employees of the university, and are usually students in the same or a similar discipline to the student who needs the notetaker. 
  • Notetakers are selected, employed and trained by the Accessibility Service, including disability awareness and confidentiality.

Auslan Interpreters and Captioning Services

  • We can arrange Auslan interpreters or live captioning services for students who are profoundly deaf, and where notetaking is not adequate.
  • To help us organise an interpreter in a timely manner, we strongly encourage you to give us as much notice as possible if this service is required.
  • To ensure services are provided in time for the start of session, a lead time of four to six weeks prior to the start of session is required for captioning services.

Lecture recordings 

  • We can arrange lecture recordings for those subjects in which the lectures are not automatically recorded.
  • These recordings will be made available to you online. 

Course materials in alternative formats 

  • Course materials can be converted into an alternative format to provide access for students with a disability / health condition which impacts on their access to printed documents. For example, reading speed or processing, vision and mobility.
  • If you need course materials in alternative formats (e.g. text PDF, Word or Audio/MP3), please let us know at least 6 weeks prior to the start of session as these formats can be time consuming to produce. 

Scribes for tests and examinations 

  • While the Accessibility Service does not conduct tests and examinations, we provide trained scribes and readers for examinations.
  • You will need to have a scribe or reader as an approved exam provision.
  • Scribes and readers are selected and trained by the Accessibility Service and are allocated in relation to the same or similar discipline in which the student is studying.
  • The role of the scribe is to write, verbatim, as is instructed by the student.
  • The role of the reader is to read the exam paper and any related allowable documents, as instructed by the student.

Equipment loans 

  • We can provide short term and long term (course duration) equipment loans including, but not limited to: assistive software e.g. Dragon Naturally Speaking, Read and Write Gold, Zoomtext, Jaws, as well as FM systems, dictaphones/recorders and specialist equipment such as amplified stethoscopes.
  • Equipment loans are provided in relation to the impacts of disability / health condition being experienced by the student. We can also help you to source other equipment that you might need. Speak with your Accessibility Consultant to discuss these options.

Assistive technologies

The following assistive software is available on campus in all general access IT Labs and the Student Services Unit Resource Room (SSURR) and Library Assistive Technology rooms (LATR):

  • JAWS (Job Access With Speech) version 18 is for computer users whose vision loss prevents them from seeing screen content or navigating with a mouse. JAWS provides speech and Braille output. View testimonials from JAWS users.
  • Zoomtext version 10.1 is a magnification and reading software for people who have a vision impairment.

  • Read&Write is available for FREE to UTS students (and staff) and works on Windows, Chrome / Edge Browser, Mac, iPads and Android tablets. Read & Write is a floating toolbar that assists with reading, writing, research and revision. Instructions are available here. You can:

    • Highlight text and read it out aloud
    • Highlight and automatically reference selected text
    • Convert text to audio files
    • Build specialised vocabulary lists with definition<>
    • And much more!

    For more information and functions explanations visit the Yale Centre for Dyslexia and Creativity. 

Watch ABC journalist Nas Campanella present the Triple J news using JAWS.

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Transcript

[Background music plays softly. Footage of a courtroom appears.] More evidence given at an abuse inquiry.

[Cut to Naz Campanella in a radio studio.] The voice is calm and confident.

G'day, Naz Campanella with Triple J News.

But what Triple J listeners across the country don't know is that this newsreader can't see one word of the script she's delivering.

Twenty-four-year-old Naz Campanella is blind.

[Camera pans to Naz at the microphone.] The federal government's decision to scrap the promised increase.

Not only that, she can't read braille.

So Naz Campanella presents three-minute news bulletins on the hour by listening to an audio translation of copy through her headphones and then repeating what she hears.

I am reading about a second or two behind.

It's hard because the speech program has an American accent and it's a sort of computerised voice. So there's that to contend with and it pronounces things sort of incorrectly most of the time.

She doesn't just present the bulletins but produces them as well, operating the panel with the help of strategically placed Velcro dots while listening to four different streams of audio.

In the headphones, I can hear myself.

The federal opposition leader says he expects backbench dissidents to form an alliance.

I can hear the speech program telling me what to say.

The federal opposition leader says he expects backbench dissidents to form an alliance.

I can hear the audio grabs that I have to play on air.

[Audio grab: Politician speaking] "In the end, they all understand that we're a team."

And then on top of that, I can hear a clock telling me how much time I've got left to go.

[Electronic beep] Ten.

It's fine usually during the bulletin, but at the end of the day, after sort of reading five or six bulletins in a row, my ears are a bit kind of sore and it's all a bit much.

[Interviewer, off camera] What about your brain?

No, the brain learns to deal with it.

Well, I think it's quite remarkable.

Heather Forbes is responsible for hiring and training ABC cadet journalists.

Her brain can process that information in a nanosecond. And if a sighted person tries to do it, you just can't.

I don't know how she does it because I've tried it myself and I just couldn't do it.

Naz Campanella lost her sight at six months of age when blood vessels burst at the back of her eyes, damaging the retinas.

It was due to a genetic condition which also affected her younger brother, Ben, but his sight was salvaged thanks to laser surgery, which wasn't available to Naz.

I think it's probably been a bit traumatic for Mum and Dad, especially early on, because I guess they'd never really met someone with a vision impairment, had no idea about what I'd be capable of doing or what services were out there in order to help me sort of get through life.

But they've always been really supportive.

They've never wrapped me up in cotton wool.

I've always had to do everything like, you know, my brother or my cousins.

Work experience at community radio sparked a passion for broadcasting and Naz Campanella went on to graduate with a journalism degree from the University of Technology Sydney.

It was difficult to find a job.

Any job at all because, you know, I looked good on paper in terms of all the voluntary experience I had in the industry and, you know, my résumé looked great, the samples of work I had looked great, but it wasn't until I got to the interview stage where they found out I had a vision impairment and it was like all of a sudden they just changed their attitude and it was a big no, basically, and it was pretty heartbreaking.

In 2011, her luck changed and she beat a field of 700 applicants to win one of the 10 cadetships on offer at the ABC.

She had determination and she doesn't take no for an answer and she's got curiosity. She can write very well. She's got a beautiful voice, beautiful broadcast voice.

And in the end I said to myself, well, hell, if I was her, if I didn't have sight and I wanted to be a journalist, I'd want the cadetship. And so there was absolutely no reason to not give her a cadetship.

[Interviewer] How did you feel when you got the phone call to tell you you'd been given a cadetship?

There were tears.

Pretty happy.

They were willing to take a chance, I guess, when no one else was, and they've done everything they possibly could to make it work and I couldn't have asked for anything more.

All right, we're recording, so tell me, how long have you been working?

During her cadetship, Naz Campanella reported in the field, became proficient at court reporting and spent a year, like all ABC cadets, working in a regional newsroom—Bega, in New South Wales.

Naz Campanella is the first ABC cadet journalist who is blind and she's breaking new ground in the way she delivers the news.

I just think it's fantastic and I think, you know, she's a great role model for anyone else out there who wants to be a journalist and, you know, hasn't got their sight.

But Naz Campanella isn't trying to be a role model, just the best journalist she can be.

I just like it.

At the end of the day, I go home and I feel good about my job and I look forward to it the next day.

You're listening to Triple J.

It's a dream come true, really.


Additionally, the following assistive technology software is available in the SSURR (for use in the individual study room) and the Library Assistive Technology room 2b:

  • Dragon Naturally Speaking version 14 is speech recognition technology that enables users to produce written text from speech. This is helpful for writing, spelling and typing difficulties.

Please contact the Accessibility Administrator and copy in your Accessibility Consultant if you need to request:

  • Installation of assistive technology in Faculty computer Labs.
  • Access to assistive technology for use from your personal computer/device.

Additionally, the following assistive technology software is available in the SSURR (for use in the individual study room) and the Library Assistive Technology room 2b:

Please note: we may also be able to assist you to purchase assistive technologies. Discuss these options with your Accessibility Consultant.