Summary of course taken

I am currently an MSC in Web Technology student at Southampton University.

I have been studying at Southampton University for the last 4 years. I spent the first 3 years of study completing a degree in Information Technology & Organisations. This year I have undertaken an MSC in Web Technology.

Description of strategies used

I have a visual disability but do not find the majority of assistive technology easy to work with or suitable to my needs. When it comes to study related problems

• I often find it difficult to look at visual material from a distance, in particular PowerPoint presentations on projectors. In fact Lecturers carrying out any visual presentations whether by hand or by computer are hard for me to see clearly.
• I print materials before the lecture in a larger size so having notes in advance is very helpful – I prefer to use Times New Roman bold size 16 when reading from paper and from the screen.
• Reading through material takes a lengthy amount of time for me if in a small font size, so extensions to deadlines are provided to help me cope with my work load.

Where I do use technology

• I make use of a laptop to take notes when in lectures from what the lecturers are talking about as I don’t always view what is being shown on a projector accurately.
• I used personalised settings on my laptop so I have made the fonts larger and the icons but I do not use specialised magnification or screen reading as I just don’t get on with it. I like to just increase the font sizes in each application, so I can see it all on the screen at the same time
• I use a large phone so I can see the screen – it is almost the size of a PDA and I have made the fonts larger. It is a Nokia 6288
• I prefer to search for things using Google in Mozilla Firefox as I have it laid out the way I like compared to Internet Explorer, it is easy to change font sizes and to add tabs.