Assistive Technology

Campus-Wide Resources

Kurzweil 3000 and the Kurzweil Web App

Kurzweil 3000, a powerful text-to-speech and study aid program, is available to all current Hampshire students, faculty, or staff. Our site-wide Kurzweil license gives you access to the Kurzweil web app, which can be used online or on an iPad. Students using Kurzweil can access the program on their own personal computers. Kurzweil 3000 also has a built-in free library of classic literature. 

Learn more about Kurzweil 3000 and register

Kurzweil training videos

There is also a Kurzweil 3000 Chrome browser extension. Sign up for your account above and then download and install the extension from the Chrome Store:

Read the Web

Online File Conversion Service

The Robobraille file converter is also available to the entire Hampshire community. It does a good job of converting documents into accessible formats with computer-readable text. It converts many different file types into a variety of formats: for example, from a PDF to a text-to-speech MP3 audio file.

Convert a File

Grackle

Grackle is a suite of Chrome extensions  the College has subscribed to for use with Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides. Grackle performs an accessibility scan and identifies issues to be fixed. Grackle has a built-in PDF generator.

Grackle Training Video

The Brickfield Accessibility Toolkit

Owners of Moodle courses have access to The Brickfield Toolkit which is built into Moodle 4.11. You need to turn it on to scan a course to identify and fix accessibility issues.

Accommodation-related Technologies

If you are in need of specific assistive technology for a documented disability, please visit our disclosure and accommodation request page to learn more.

Hampshire College subscribes to:

Texthelp, Glean, and Bookshare

Texthelp - Google Read&Write
Read&Write for HigherED Video

Glean is an electronic note taking service designed to scaffold the learning process.
Glean in a Minute Video 
The Glean Note Taking App

Bookshare is a an ebook service. You can customize your reading experience in ways that work for you.
Bookshare Video