Technology to support your studies | Accessibility Resources & Service

The ARS Office will be working REMOTELY starting Monday, December 20, through Thursday, December 23. Please email ars@unc.edu or call 919-962-8300 if you require assistance.

The University will be closed beginning Friday, December 24, and will reopen on Monday, January 3. We will return to the office at that time.

ARS Office Operations

Students who need to speak with a staff member should email ars@unc.edu with a brief explanation of their questions/concerns, and a staff member will contact the student to make an appointment if necessary. All documentation sent to the office in request of an accommodation must either be emailed or faxed, or the provider can fill out the online Documentation of Disability Form to attach documents.

Alternative Text, Note-taking Requests, and CART Services

Students needing to request alternative texts for their courses should fill out the form as soon as possible to allow us ample time to request these resources. Please remember that obtaining these alternative formats can take time, and we want to make sure that you have them when classes begin, not later in the semester. For students requiring CART services, that form should be filled out NOW. Supplementary Notetaking requests will also need to be submitted as soon as possible, and certainly BEFORE the January 10, 2022 start date. Waiting until the start of classes may result in a delay given the volume of requests we receive. The forms can be located on our website here: 

Access and Mobility

Students requiring mobility accommodations need to check their class schedules now to ensure your courses are in physically accessible buildings. The following buildings/classrooms are inaccessible: Caldwell (103, 105, 208), Davie (301), and Smith Hall (107). Additionally, if you require a stand-alone desk in your classroom, please CHECK HERE to see if one is available. If it is not, please email us at ars@unc.edu.

Spring 2022 Testing Accommodations

Given the population of students we serve, including those who are immunocompromised, we are taking precautions, including physical distancing, in the ARS Testing Center. Consequently, capacity will be reduced though we will remain open for our regular hours Monday through Thursday from 8 AM until 8 PM, and Friday from 8 AM until 5 PM starting January 10, 2022. We ask that instructors take this information into consideration when planning exams and we ask for continued flexibility and understanding.

Instructors - We continue to see an exponential increase in the number of students connected with ARS (now over 2500 so far), and with this rise in numbers it can provide difficulties in spacing and capacity. Given the current impact of the latest COVID variant, student concerns, the need for some students to isolate and quarantine resulting in absences, and Testing Center layout, we will need to be mindful and consider flexibility when students experience scheduling issues. If a student presents a scheduling issue, please feel free to reach out to us for confirmation that it is indeed due to testing center capacity and we will work with you to find a solution. We appreciate the continued instructor partnership when proctoring for low distraction test setting and 25-50% extended time when you are able to do so. This will allow students with more complex or involved accommodations (such as private setting, scribe/reader, etc.) to schedule at the Testing Center. As always, if you have questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to us.

Students - We will do our best to make sure that the ARS Testing Center can provide a setting for your accommodated testing needs if your instructor cannot proctor your exam with the approved accommodations. We have created a new “setting” where you can send a notification of the exam accommodation directly to the professor the same way in which you might schedule an exam at the ARS Testing Center. For the location, you would need to choose “Instructor Scheduling Reminder – no ARS proctor” as your option. Please reach out to your instructors BEFORE scheduling exams. Check to make sure they can provide for your accommodated testing needs. If they are unable to proctor your exam with the more complex/involved accommodations (i.e. scribe, reader, more than 50% extended time, etc.), please go ahead and schedule your exams in the Hub to be taken at the ARS Testing Center. You will need to schedule your exams at least one week (5 business days, 7 calendar days) ahead of the requested scheduling date. If you miss this deadline, you will need to submit a Non-Standard Scheduling Request form.

In addition to the enhanced cleaning procedures implemented by UNC Housekeeping each night, we will schedule intermittent cleaning procedures to make sure common areas in the Testing Center are cleaned on a regular basis throughout the day. As a general good practice, especially with the upcoming cold and flu season, you will be asked to wipe down your test setting before and after completing your exam. You will also be required to keep your mask on the entire time you are in the ARS Testing center, even in a separate test setting. Food and drink will generally not be allowed, and certain accommodations for such allowances will need to be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.

Digital textbooks

Investigate to see if the book you are looking for is available in a digital format by searching the Accessible Textbook Finder. This service helps providers, students, faculty, and publishers find the products, services, and up-to-date accessibility information they need. AccessText is available to everyone; no membership required. AccessText may indicate that the textbook being sought is available from its own repository or from another source including:

Bookshare - FREE to qualifying members, Bookshare provides books in a range of formats including Word, EPub, DAISY* and Braille Refreshable Format (BRF). ARS will certify qualifying members.
Learning Ally - has a library of audio-books books in audio format and DAISY for members who qualify. ARS has an organizational membership.
VitalSource
Gutenburg Project
Academic Ebooks
Hathi Trust Digital Library - login using your onyen and password
The Online Books Page

ARS connected students needing assistance obtaining a digital textbook should complete the Alternative Format / E-Text - Information, Procedure and Request Form.

If no electronic copy is available from any of the sources ARS can convert a 'hard-copy' into a digital copy; please Please note that such requests will take a minimum of 10 Business Days to fulfill. Textbooks converted by ARS may need to have the binding broken to be scanned. The UNC Student Stores Coursepack office will put a spiral binder on the book at no charge; however they may not be willing to buy back the book at the end of the semester once the binding has been broken.

Operating system accessibility features

Planning and organization of homework

Supporting writing and reading

Text to speech

ClaroRead - MAC & Win - is the primary component of the ClaroRead suite and has a text to speech feature. It is available at no cost from ITS.
Windows 10 has Narrator.
The macOS has the VoiceOver text-to-speech feature built into the operating system: look in System Preferences, Accessibility, VoiceOver for options.
Immersive Reader is part of the Learning Tools suite and is available in Word, Word Online, OneNote, OneNote Online, Outlook Online, and Microsoft Edge.
Natural Reader Online is free and reads many types of documents including DOC, TXT, PDF. Word Talk is a free Word plugin, which also allows saving to MP3 which can be listened to anywhere.

Speech to text

Voice typing in Google Docs - in Chrome
Otter.ai

Mind mapping - these programs allow content created visually to be exported as plain text; this can be a good way of getting started with a skeleton of a plan for an assignment, paper, notes, and research.

ClaroIdeas - from the ClaroRead suite
Coggle
Bubbl
Mindomo
X-Mind
Freemind

Grammar and spelling

Supporting notetaking and recording lectures

GLEAN - can be used for in-person classes and over Zoom - available from ARS for students with this accommodation - contact ARS for access
OneNote

Page Type:

Resources

WINTER BREAK & Spring 2022 ARS Updates

ARS Office Operations

Alternative Text, Note-taking Requests, and CART Services

Access and Mobility

Spring 2022 Testing Accommodations