Chat

Most of the time you will use Centra for your course chats. Centra cannot be used comfortably by students who are unsighted or do not hear. When you want to include students with disabilities in a chat here are some other resources:

ACHAT

ACHAT is a text-based chat tool developed by the University of Toronto. You and your students will type your comments back and forth to each other.

ACHAT is useful for chatting with students who have low vision, are unsighted or do not hear. Each participant can adjust both the size of the text and the rate of speed the messages are delivered to his or her screen.

There are no applications available with ACHAT. It is only a communication tool.

ACHAT is free of charge and a copy of it is available on the Boston Harbor Campus server.

To try it out go to:
http://achat.atrc.utoronto.ca/

IVOCALIZE

IVOCALIZE is a voice chat tool which operates in a similar way to Centra without using the icons. Chat participants hold the control key down to talk the same way they do in a Centra chat.

This tool can be used fairly easily by students who are unsighted. You can run a Power Point presentation in IVOCALIZE as well as demonstrate web sites. IVOCALIZE does not have the ability to support a White Board.

If you would like to try this tool log into the link below. This is a ten seat demonstration room. There is no password. Just type in your name and click on enter.

Logging in only lets you chat as student participants. If you would like to moderate a chat in this IVOCALIZE room contact Valerie Haven at 617.287.4329 or valerie.haven@umb.edu.

IVOCALIZE link:
http://www.tcconference.com/tvi/?val&nopass_field=1