Student Resources

Assistive technology (often abbreviated as AT) is any item, piece of equipment, software or product system that is used to increase, maintain or improve the functional capabilities of individuals with disabilities. Assistive technology includes products and services to help people who have difficulty speaking, typing, writing, remembering, pointing, seeing, hearing, learning, walking, etc. Different disabilities require different assistive technologies. Assistive technology products are designed to provide additional accessibility to individuals who have physical or cognitive difficulties, impairments and disabilities. When selecting assistive technology products, it is crucial to find products that are compatible with the computer operating system and programs on the particular computer being used.

Assistive technology equipment loans are available at all Georgia State locations at their respective Access and Accommodations Center offices. Equipment loans are due on or before the last day of class of the respective semester. Failure to return equipment will result in a hold placed on the students account. In the event that the equipment has been lost, it is the student’s responsibility to replace the lost equipment in order to remove the hold.

• Fusion
• Zoomtext
• Read and Write
• Sonocent

• CCTV
• Roger Pen
• Lapel and Conference Microphones
• Portable Handheld Magnifier
• Trackball Mouse
• Livescribe Echo Smartpen
• Digital Audio Recorder

Real-Time captioning is provided by the university to accommodate Deaf and Hard of Hearing students as required by law.

Real-Time captionists for registered students are hired. They are professionally trained and adhere to a code of ethical and professional standards to transcribe (caption) all information accurately. The captionist may be either a college employee or a contractor.

Remote and in-person captionists use specialized software (C-Print or CART). Their role is to transcribe or caption all spoken information including conversations between students, their classmates and their instructors.

An in-person captionist may also assist in voicing questions and comments that the deaf or hard of hearing student types on their laptop or mobile device.

Lecture transcripts are made available only to the student with this accommodation. Captioning is not provided when the student is not in class.

To request captioning services for class, contact AACE.

Students who need captioning services at an event or activity should fill out the appropriate form on the Accommodations for Events and Activities page.

Georgia State is committed to making necessary arrangements for the provision of accommodations at non-academic events or activities sponsored by the university with sufficient notice. For students registered with AACE requesting disability-related accommodations at such an event, please complete and submit an interpreting request or captioning request below. For departments or individuals not registered with AACE, services are available at a fee.

Students with majors in the College of Arts and Sciences and Perimeter College may have a foreign language core course requirement for graduation. In some instances, a disability is such that it interferes with the ability to acquire a new language through participation in collegiate level courses.

Most commonly this accommodation applies to a limited number of students with learning disabilities or other cognitive disabilities that significantly affect language. It may also apply to students who are deaf, hard of hearing or who have speech disorders.

Before beginning the petition process, students should consult with their Access Coordinator to determine whether a foreign language course substitution might be supported by AACE and the RCLD because of significant language-related limitations caused by their disability.

Students with learning disabilities who have been evaluated by the Regents Center for Learning Disorders should refer to the “Recommendations” section at the end of their testing reports to determine whether the center recommended a course substitution.

Students with learning disabilities who have been tested by other professionals or students who are deaf, or hard of hearing or who have speech disorders will need to request a review of their disability documentation through the Access and Accommodations Center (AACE) to determine whether a course substitution can be supported.

View additional information about Course Substitutions.

View contact information for various Georgia State departments and CampusWell resources for students.

High school vs. college requirements for accessibility accommodations.

The Access and Accommodations Center (AACE) collaborates with Georgia State Housing to meet the on-campus housing needs of students with disabilities.

Students

• Students requesting housing accommodations must adhere to all University Housing policies, procedures and deadlines. To receive full consideration for on-campus housing accommodations, students must submit all required applications and requests within the time limits established by University Housing and AACE.
• Complete and submit the Registration Form to request housing accommodations. Once submitted, AACE will schedule a Welcome Meeting. Needed housing accommodations will be emailed to the student and to University Housing.

The Access and Accommodations Center

• Once all the required forms are submitted and reviewed, AACE will contact the student about his or her housing accommodation request.
• AACE will identify approved accommodations for housing by issuing a Housing Accommodation Letter during a scheduled appointment with the student. AACE’s approval for housing accommodations does not override the policies of any particular agency, office or department. If a student has other housing needs not related to a disability, he or she should contact University Housing by email or by phone at 404-413-1800.

University Housing

• University Housing will implement the accommodation which is subject to room availability per a student’s room assignment or waitlist number. Moreover, if the approved accommodation is a private room, University Housing will implement the accommodation based on the availability of unassigned rooms.

Students requesting housing accommodations should complete the Registration Form and include relevant documentation. The documentation must clearly demonstrate the need for housing accommodation.

Sign language interpreters are arranged by the university to provide accommodations to Deaf and Hard of Hearing students. They are professionally trained and adhere to a code of ethical and professional standards to interpret all information faithfully. The interpreters on campus may be either university employees or contractors.

Interpreters interpret all spoken and signed information, including lectures and discussions in class, as well as conversations between students and classmates or their instructors to ensure equal access to the environment and information.

Interpreters are not:

• Active participants in classroom activities
• Tutors, counselors or student aides
• Exam proctors

To receive sign language interpretation in their classes, students must:

• Schedule an initial meeting with the Access Coordinator for Interpreting Services
• Provide the Access Coordinator for Interpreting Services with a detailed copy of their class schedule as soon as they register each semester (the schedule must include the course number and title, instructor’s name, days the class meets, beginning and ending time, building and room number)
• Abide by the Interpreting Services Policies

Prospective students and others not currently enrolled in classes requesting interpretation for GSU events or activities should fill out the appropriate form to request Accommodations for Events and Activities. Currently enrolled students should also use this form for requests outside of their regular courses.

As part of the core curriculum, all University System of Georgia (USG) students are required to complete three hours of coursework that address learning outcomes in quantitative reasoning (i.e. core mathematics requirement; Learning Goal A2 Quantitative Outcomes). Students who are unable to complete this core mathematics requirement as a result of a documented disability must still complete the core curriculum but may petition to do so (complete the required coursework with learning outcomes in quantitative reasoning) with a substitute course. Students determined to be eligible upon petition for a substitution may be approved to take a substitute course identified by their institution if mathematics is not considered an essential component of their major/program of study. If an eligible student approved for a math course substitution changes major/program of study, the substitution approval may be re-evaluated to determine whether mathematics is considered an essential component of the new major/program of study.

Approval of a petition for a course substitution for the core mathematics requirement does not extend to any Learning Support requirements a student must complete to meet the basic skills requirements of a major/program of study. Further, approval of a petition for a course substitution for the core mathematics requirement is limited to the core mathematics requirement and does not apply to the mathematics requirements of certain majors/programs of study.

To request course substitution for mathematics coursework required for specific majors/programs of study, students must submit a separate petition under the Georgia State established procedures for seeking modifications to program requirements.

To receive approval for core mathematics substitution, (1) a student must submit a core math course substitution petition with supporting documentation to the Access and Accommodations Center (AACE); (2) the Regents Center for Learning Disorders must determine upon review of the student’s request and supporting materials that the student has a disability currently impacting his or her mathematics skill that precludes the potential for academic success, despite reasonable accommodations and good faith effort; and (3) Georgia State must determine that the core mathematics coursework is not essential to (i.e. will not result in a fundamental alteration of) the student’s major/program of study.

1. Students must submit a petition and supporting materials to AACE at Georgia State. The materials should at a minimum include the following:
   1. written petition (request) for a mathematics core course substitution,
   2. documentation of a disability that substantially limits mathematics skills relative to most people in the general population as determined by a qualified professional. Documentation must meet the guidelines specified in Appendix D: Disability Documentation, and Appendix E: Specific Documentation Guidelines.
   3. secondary and postsecondary transcripts documenting prior mathematics coursework;
   4. documentation of reasonable accommodations used in prior mathematics coursework; and
   5. signed consent form authorizing release of the documentation to the reviewing parties.
2. AACE will submit the petition request and supporting documentation to the Regent’s Center for Learning Disorders (RCLD) at Georgia State.
3. RCLD will review the provided documentation to determine eligibility. Petitioning students whose documentation shows the student has a disability currently impacting his or her mathematics skill that precludes the potential for academic success, despite reasonable accommodations and good faith effort, will be determined to be eligible. RCLD may request additional information from the student as necessary to make a determination.
4. RCLD will provide notice of the eligibility determination regarding the student’s core mathematics substitution request to AACE within 15 business days of receipt of all documentation necessary to a determination.
5. If RCLD determines that a petitioning student is eligible for a core mathematics substitution, then a Georgia State Review Committee for Core Mathematics Course Substitutions will determine whether the core mathematics requirement is an essential component of the student’s major/program of study. If not essential, the eligible student will receive approval from AACE for a Core Mathematics substitution.
6. Eligible students approved for a core math course substitution must contact the University Advisement Center for identification of a substitute course suitable to the student’s major/program of study and finalization of the math course substitution.

University System of Georgia Academic and Student Affairs Handbook: Student with Learning Disorders

Georgia State Policy Procedures for Student Complaints, Petitions for Policy Waivers and Variances, and Appeals

University System of Georgia Academic and Student Affairs Handbook: Learning Support

A notetaker may be one of your requests. Historically, many students have experienced difficulty and/or delays in acquiring a human notetaker for one or more classes. Some of these human concerns include:

• Difficulty identifying a notetaker; sometimes takes weeks, if ever
• Delays in receiving notes from a notetaker
• Notetakers take notes that work for them but may not be what you need and/or are in a style that does not work for you
• Notetaker is absent
• Notetaker (or student) drops class and does not tell anyone so there’s a delay in securing another
• Notetaker is failing the class (How good were those notes?)
• Notetaker accidentally writes down incorrect information (How would you even know?)

Many universities around the country are reporting similar issues. Universities such as Clemson, Ohio State, Georgia Tech and Georgia State, amongst many others, are working out alternative plans to the fallible human note taker. The results are much more effective and efficient for lecture-capture. Depending on the rationale behind your request for a notetaker, please review the following options and let us know, as soon as possible, what will work best for you for your future lecture-capture needs.

Options

1. Personal Recording Device: Use of recording device of your choice to record your classes: laptop, digital recorder, cell phone, etc.
2. SmartPen: Use of SmartPen to record classes and ability to return to a particular part of lecture at the touch of the pen. (Available for loan from AACE, or you may purchase your own)
3. Sonocent Software: Use this software to record classes on your laptop, typing in your own notes adjacent to the recording and syncing with any PowerPoint slides provided by your instructor. Check out this brief demo to help you decide if Sonocent is right for you. (AACE would assign a Sonocent license to you and provide software training, by appointment, if needed; or, you may purchase your own license directly from Sonocent)
4. Otter App: There’s also an app you may want to use for recording, that is super helpful. Are you already familiar with Otter? If not, consider downloading the free app on your smart phone. It appears in the app store as “Otter Voice Meeting notes.” Once you download it and select the record button (image of a mic), it will begin recording and provide a real time transcript on your screen. It is not perfect but is the best real time app we’ve seen so far. Ultimately, you can edit the transcript, save it, copy and paste it into another document, highlight important notes, etc. If something does not appear transcribed correctly, you can turn up the volume, tap on that area and listen to what was actually said at that time. Otter comes with ten free hours per month; certainly enough to give it a try. We’d love to get some feedback from you if you have time.
5. Live Caption: Automatically caption media playing on your phone. With a single tap, Live Caption automatically captions videos, podcasts and audio messages—even stuff you record yourself, without ever needing WiFi or cell phone data

Georgia State and its employees are required to comply with Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (“Title IX”), a federal civil rights law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex (including pregnancy and childbirth) in educational programs and activities that receive federal funding.

A student seeking adjustments due to pregnancy or childbirth should register with the Access and Accommodations Center (AACE), which will issue the student a Title IX pregnancy adjustment letter to provide to instructors. Instructors must grant the adjustments required by Title IX as described in that letter. Unlike disability accommodations, which remain in place for the duration of a student’s tenure at GSU, pregnancy adjustments generally are limited to the current semester. Students are encouraged to register with AACE as soon as they become aware of the need for such adjustments. Adjustments are not retroactive.

To provide scholarships to students with a documented language-based learning disability (a learning disability which substantially limits the ability to read, write or comprehend spoken language). Students must be registered with the Access and Accommodations Center (AACE). Students must also have a demonstrated financial need and be an entering freshman accepted for admission or an undergraduate already enrolled. Please Note: Only applications submitted online and by the deadline date will be considered. To apply for this scholarship, visit the Academics Works site.

Online applications are accepted starting January 1st, 2024
Scholarship deadline date: April 26th, 2024

To provide scholarships to undergraduate or graduate students with documented disabilities. Students must be registered with AACE. Undergraduate students must have completed at least one semester at Georgia State and have maintained a GPA of 2.5 or higher. Graduate students must be accepted into, or currently participating in, a specific graduate or professional program at Georgia State and have a GPA of 3.0 or higher. Please Note: Only applications submitted online and by the deadline date will be considered. To apply for this scholarship, visit the Academic Works site.

Online applications are accepted starting January 1st, 2024
Scholarship deadline: April 26th, 2024

To provide scholarship support to Georgia State undergraduate and graduate students with documented disabilities who are enrolled for classes on the Atlanta campus. Recipient(s) of the award(s) must be registered with the Margaret A. Staton Access & Accommodations Center. Preference will be given to candidates with documented physical disabilities. Please Note: Only applications submitted online and by the deadline date will be considered. To apply for this scholarship, visit the Academic Works site.

Online applications are accepted starting January 1st, 2024
Scholarship deadline: April 26th, 2024