Accessibility at Musselman Library

Library lab computers, available on the main level and the second floor, are equipped with screen readers. Headphones for these can be checked out at the Check Out Desk.

The scanners on the main level have OCR capabilities, which means they translate printed text into a form that can be read by a text to speech program.

• Ear defenders are available at the Check Out Desk for noise reduction.
• In a partnership with the Center for Student Success, the library will soon have two text-to-speech pens available for checkout for in-library use. Stay tuned!
• Phoenix Rising, the neurodivergent student club that preceded G-NAT, partnered with the library to curate the contents of the "Phoenix Rising Crate." The crate contains sensory aids such as fidget spinners, weighted blanket, headphones, and more, and is available for 24-hour-checkout at the main desk.
• Students who have questions or need assistance with purchasing assistive technology should work with the Assistant Dean for Student Accessibility (Theresa Hoover).

If a document has been scanned with Optical Character Recognition (OCR), then it will be machine-readable and can be read aloud by different programs. All Musselman Library scanners can scan with OCR. Once you have a document that has been scanned that way, you can read it in Adobe, Natural Reader, with a screenreader,  or with other software.

Adobe Acrobat Reader

Adobe Reader and Adobe Acrobat both have a read aloud feature. This feature will allow PDFs that are ADA accessible to be read out loud for patrons.

In Windows OS to turn the read aloud feature on:

• open the PDF
• go to the View option at the top of the screen and select Read Out Loud and then scroll down to the last option listed called, Activate Read Out Loud
• click on the screen to begin reading

To pause, select a specific section, or, read to the end of the document, select view, the read out loud option, and then the appropriate option (pause, etc.)

In Mac OS to turn the read aloud feature on:

• open the PDF
• go to the Edit option at the top of the screen and select Speech and then select the option, Start Speaking
• reader will start automatically

To stop, select Edit at the top of the screen, then select Speech, and last select the option, Stop Speaking

Natural Reader

The Natural Reader website is a text to speech program that can read PDFs as well as copied text or webpages. There are free and premium versions.

NVDA Screenreader

NVDA is a free, open-source screenreader option for Windows computers. Download and install the software, then click the icon to start the program.

Keyboard shortcuts:

• control + alt + n: Starts or re-starts NVDA
• Insert + down arrow: Starts reading the cursor's current position
• Press and hold Ctrl: Mutes the voiceover

Students who are d/Deaf or Hard of Hearing or have auditory processing disabilities may not be able to listen to podcasts or audio recordings and will require transcripts for these materials. Some podcast creators upload transcripts with their podcasts. Not all listening software includes these, so check their website or the show description to see if it is linked. For example, opening "This Podcast Will Kill You" on Spotify doesn't show a transcript, but their website has transcripts of every episode in PDF and DOCX formats.

What if a creator has not included a transcript?

• If you can download the podcast file, then you can upload it to Microsoft Word to transcribe. Accuracy may vary.
• Apple Podcasts automatically generates transcripts for podcast episodes uploaded since March 2024. There doesn't seem to be a way to share these with someone who doesn't have access to Apple Podcasts, though.