Medaille College has implemented new equipment and technology in its Library facilities with funding from a $9,239.50 grant from the Children’s Guild Foundation. On Monday, August 11, Children’s Guild Foundation representatives visited Medaille College to see the computer workstation in the Huber Hall Library. Executive Director Cathie Gura, Board Members Penny Munschauer and Renee Phillips, and Executive Assistant Cathleen Kollmar observed as Library Director Andy Yeager and Lisa Morrison, Coordinator of Disability Services, demonstrated the equipment as installed in the Library.
Two fully-accessible computer workstations comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act, with hardware and software that can primarily assist people with visual disabilities. The JAWS (Job Access with Speech) software, for example, is a screenreader application that works with most popular software applications and the Internet to synthesize speech from text-based content.
As Medaille’s library resources are available to other institutions and to the public, this equipment will also be of service to individuals in the community, including local schools. The Buffalo and Amherst campuses will each have workstations equipped with JAWS (Jobs Access With Speech) screen reader software, desktop computers, supplemental computer equipment, and training for library staff to instruct students on the operation of the equipment.