Held annually on 3 December International Day of Persons with Disabilities was established by the United Nations (UN) in 1992 with the aim of promoting the rights and well-being of persons with disabilities, and breaking down the social and physical barriers faced which prevent persons with disabilities from participating fully in many aspects of daily life.   

Edinburgh Napier University welcomes people with disabilities, long-term health conditions and specific learning difficulties and is committed to providing students with support in all aspects of University life and aims to provide a positive and supportive environment for all students. 

The Library aims to support people with disabilities and those with individual needs by providing services such as assistance when collecting items from shelves and understanding library layouts, providing texts in digital formats, and enabling a designated friend/family member (with permission) to act on your behalf. If you require them, there are height-adjustable desks and accessible toilets in each of the Libraries.  

For eligible students with a print impairment, the Disability Inclusion Team can also set up accounts to Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) Bookshare, a huge online digital library. RNIB Bookshare opens up the world of reading in education for learners with a print-disability, including those with dyslexia or who are blind or partially sighted. 

 

 

Image of laptop on a desk

Laptop on a desk Photo by Christopher Gower on Unsplash

 

There are many different assistive technology products, equipment, and systems available to enhance learning, working, and daily living for students with disabilities and learning difficulties. The products available to help you with your studies are listed on the Assistive Technology webpages in the Disability Inclusion section on My Napier. These include browser extensions you can install to help with reading, focusing, and viewing documents. Software available includes ClaroRead, a multi-sensory software solution for supporting reading and writing, with visual tools that colour, highlight, and focus on difficult-to-read text, and allows you to read any on-screen text out loud. Sonocent Audio Notetaker is an audio recording app which allows you to annotate your audio recording by adding text notes and coloured category highlighting, either live or when listening back to the recording. These are just a few of the products available to you. Why not have a look at the webpage and see if there might be something to help your studies. 

 

If you are looking for support or would like to find out more about how the Disability Inclusion Team can help you, all the information you need is on the Disability Inclusion webpages on My Napier or you can email disabilityandinclusion@napier.ac.uk. 

If you have any questions about how the Library can support you, please email us at library@napier.ac.uk, phone us on 0131 455 3500, or see our Library webpages.  

 

By Sarah Jeffcott