Southern Illinois University Edwardsville students, who are dyslexic or have difficulty reading, should not have to wait for others to read to them. This reasoning prompted Dominic Dorsey II, director of Disability Support Services (DSS), to introduce a new resource to better help students take their exams.
“The C-Pen Exam Reader audibly reads the words when the pen is scanned across the paper,” Dorsey said. “The pen works in either direction for those who are right-handed or left-handed. It also reads in English, Spanish, French, Italian and German.”
“We are always looking for new and innovative ways to remove gatekeepers,” he added. “With the old way of having someone read to a person with reading difficulties, he or she is dependent on that person. This way provides more autonomy.”
Currently, DSS has six exam reader pens, as well as one study reader that can be checked out to students who are registered with the office.
“This device also helps cement understanding through multi-modal learning,” Dorsey said. “The audio port allows them to listen to what’s being read through a pair of personal headphones while reading along to the exam. We want to make sure that learning is both accessible and easily digestible for everyone.”
Dorsey also has plans to make the office more inclusive and empowering to students who access services, by changing the name.
“Effective July 1, our office will be called Accessible Campus Community and Equitable Student Support (ACCESS),” he said. “I talked to a student who said it took her a long time to come into our office. When I asked her why, she replied, ‘DSS is the corner of isolation and shame.’
“That got me thinking about how alienating and divisive the word ‘disability’ can be. We needed an office title that accurately described what we do without socially stigmatizing those who use our resources or prevent individuals from seeking us out at all,” Dorsey continued. “People are not broken or disabled. They are just diverse learners who do things differently.”
Photo: Dominic Dorsey II, director of Disability Support Services (DSS), presented a new way to better help diverse students study and learn.