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Volume 41, Issue 13
April 20, 2004
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April 20, 2004
Visually
impaired gain musical tool
Lee Kauftheil
Mesa Legend
Visually impaired students at MCC can now compose music without assistance,
thanks to a new computerized music station.
The Dancing Dots computer system, which combines JAWS text-to-spoken-word
software with music programs like Cakewalk and Sibelius, allows visually
impaired students the ability to compose music using the same software
that other music students use.
Before the system, students like Sarah Outwater and Venu Bangueety needed
another student to help them navigate the menus, but now they can directly
control their creative process.
Music technology teacher Keith Heffner said he was fascinated by the adaptive
lab in the library, which converts Braille into English and English into
Braille. When student Tom Kusek and Outwater brought the new software
to his attention, he loved the idea.
As the music technology teacher, Heffner put a proposal together to get
the new software and hardware. He said that “Sarah (Outwater) had
a need” and he worked to meet it. Kusek said he saw it as a tool
to help students excel in their classes.
The hardware itself is a typical computerized music setup that any other
student uses. The software developed by Dancing Dots is what makes it
unique. Students sit at the station and put on headphones. As they navigate
the program, the names of the selected items are spoken aloud, allowing
them to use the station without the help of another person.
The cost of the software, hardware and training was split evenly between
the music department and Disability Resource Services. Dancing Dots sent
a representative to MCC to instruct students and faculty on the use of
the new program.
Heffner said the short-term goal is to design a curriculum around the
new software and create awareness of the program. In the long term Heffner
said, “I want MCC to be a leader, to be ready to accept, guide and
equip students.”
Heffner said he plans to integrate the new station in his electronic music
session classes this summer. Outwater herself has also gone out and found
students for Heffner’s classes. He also hopes to make high school
students aware of what MCC can offer.
Heffner said that this is the first time that Dancing Dots has sold the
software to an institution and that private individuals, like Ray Charles,
had been the primary people to purchase the company’s product in
the past.
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