SuperNova Access Suite Case Study: Houston Colleges choose the Dolphin Pen

Beth Case, Disability Services Counselor explains why

Nestled in the Woodlands and other suburbs of Houston, North Harris Montgomery Community College District offer students a variety of choice in classes, location, and access.  NHMCCD comprises Cy-Fair College, Kingwood College, Montgomery College, North Harris College, Tomball College, six satellite centers and The University Center.  Recently, the District purchased 25 Dolphin Pens to increase their commitment to a student's access to education in a flexible and fluid learning environment.  More than happy to discuss why she chose the Pen, the following is an interview with Beth Case, Disability Services Counselor for a college in the district.

Did you buy the Pens for a specific person or for general use?

The pens were not bought for a specific person, we are just preparing for potential students.  We're trying to equip our lab with the best up-to-date, state of the art technology possible and the Pen is part of that. 

What interested you about the Dolphin Pen?

The portability.  We sometimes have students that go on an internship or for some other reason need to have access to a computer that's not on our network.  We have the Supernova networked across our campus, so a student can access it from any computer on the network, as long as the computer has the Supernova icon.  Sometimes students need access to computers that aren’t networked or don’t have Supernova readily available.  The fact that these students can now plug the Pen into any computer is really advantageous to us and the student.

Our goal is to work ourselves out of a job.  We want the campus to be so accessible that students can walk in and the Pens are available to check out at the library desk like headphones or our laptops.  We don’t have to check in with every student, and the students don’t need to go through the process of asking us for the accommodation.  It's just there.

With students who are going on an internship, we know we can now accommodate them. 

Students with their own laptop, perhaps with particular software that they need for class, can borrow a Pen and use it around campus.  They are no longer limited in their choice of computers. They don’t have to sit in the back of the library with the lone accessible computer or worry about not having access.

What do you like about Dolphin products?

What we like about Dolphin is its really easy to use.  Some one who’s never used assistive technology like that before can come to college and quickly learn how to use what they need for their classes without getting behind.

Somebody coming in already knowing how to use a screen reader, that’s great, but most students come in and don’t know how to use anything.  It’s just so easy and intuitive to use, and it provides different types of accessibility in one package; screen reader, magnification, in one.  You don’t have to worry about conflicts with something like JAWs and Kurzweil on one computer.  It makes it really simple and nice to have one piece of software on the computer that can be used for access needs.  

A new student can walk in the day before class, when our IT department doesn’t have the time to load access software onto a new computer, and we can hand them a Pen and know the student is taken care of.

At the circulation at the desk in the library, the students can check out laptops and a Pen and be comfortable on a computer that works with them.

One of the things that prompted the purchase of the Pens was a student needed accessible software at an off campus internship site.  We couldn’t download anything onto her computer because of security.  We ended up having to loan her a laptop and installing access software on the laptop.  Now with one of these Pens, we have a better solution that we can proceed with quickly and with less hassle for ourselves and the student.

Thanks to: Beth Case
Counselor, Disability Services
North Harris Community College Houston, TX

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