I recently attended the Accessing Higher Ground conference, which is all about your question. I was encouraged to learn that most institutions now have explicit programs around ensuring equal access to educational opportunity for all. Any institution that accepts federal money in the U.S. must adhere to Title II of the ADA and Section 504 of the rehabilitation act. Any student can bring a complaint if the institution isn't working toward compliance (at least), and all complaints require investigation and resolution. So the school administration is under intense pressure to make it work.

On the minus side, as noted, professors are not always up on the requirements, so they may do things such as making use on non-accessible software. Also, not all PDFs are work for people who are blind, so that's an issue. But one that certainly got a lot of attention at this particular conference.

Anyway, while there are miles to go on full accessibility, I was encouraged by how many people are working very diligently to make equal access to education a real thing. The comment from DocCyane is more specific, but I guess I wanted to add to the encouragement to give it a go.

Good luck!

**Full disclosure:** I work in the assistive technology industry *with* nearly every manufacturer and publisher out there. Important to note: I do not work *for* any of them.

**tl;dr:** I'd recommend combining some or all of the following products: (1) Read&Write Gold, (2) Kurzweil 1000 or 3000, (3) a regular scanner; consider getting one with tactile buttons instead of touchscreen, such as the HP Printer/Scanner 4630, (4) ZoomText, which has a free trial, and (5) a CCTV Desktop Magnifier.

**Recommendation:** I am most impressed with a software called Read&Write Gold. It is most common for students. It reads any text out loud to you, including text from a document which you scanned into your computer. If you don't want it read out loud to you, you still get the benefit of having a software that will convert scanned documents to text. And as you say, text is easier to read once on your computer.

I would suggest using this software with a scanner. Alternatively, you could get Kurzweil 1000 or 3000 - they are a bit more expensive, but the software was designed by Ray Kurzweil, who was the person who first invented Text to Speech, which is referred to as Optical Character Recognition or OCR. Kurzweil 1000 and Read&Write Gold basically do the same thing.

If you have a scanned document sitting on your computer as text, or you are able to get all your books as a PDF, then maybe you might make good use of a magnifying software. You can zoom in on anything on your screen and make it as big as you want. The only software I recommend for this is ZoomText. The publisher, AI Squared, offers a free 60 day trial for Windows users and 15 day trial for Mac. I high recommend trying it out.

If you are left only using a book and do not want to use your computer, you can purchase a desktop magnifier. They are referred to as Desktop CCTV Magnifiers. They will enlarge anything you put under the camera onto a 24 inch hd monitor. Most of these devices can also read the text from the page out loud. My personal favorite manufacturer is Enhanced Vision. They are located in Huntington Beach, California, but they likely have a sales rep in your state or area who will come to your house and let you try any of the machines without obligation to purchase. Other manufacturers who have reps who should be able to help you include: Optelec, Humanware, and HIMS.

Hmm... I think that's the biggest and best stuff I can think of. Feel free to reply or PM if you have any questions.

First off if you provide your location it may help users provide area specific advise since laws and regulations are different between countries.

 

That aside I'll give you what I know for the United States. I think we are in a pretty similar situation. I'm going to be graduating from high school in May of 2016 and going to school for engineering. I have have Leber's Congenital Amaurosis which is in the same family as RP, mine has just been around since birth as opposed to the later onset found in most cases of RP.

 

So here is what I know from being a visually impaired student since forever who is also about to go into college.

 

The first is to get in touch with your local Department of Social Services, Rehab Services for the Blind. This is absolutely critical as they can provide you with technology, training, and in some cases even funding. My DSS has committed to paying my room and board as well as all of my textbooks, a new laptop, another CCTV, and several other things. They may also cover a portion of my tuition if that is necessary. The DSS is a *huge* resource available to you and you shouldn't look it over.

 

The next step is similar and that is to contact local non-profits that aid the blind for the same reasons as above. They are another resource for you to use.

 

The next piece is if you are losing vision in a way that it is inhibiting your travel get orientation and mobility training now. Struggling with travel is not another thing you want on top of your classes. I decided to get training way too late and I regret not doing it sooner, having those skills and the confidence has drastically improved my personal and school life.

 

The next piece is extensively review what you need from your school's disability office. It sounds like you've already done that so you are probably in the clear but always be thinking of ways to make it easier on yourself and keep in communication with them. My school has a disability specialist and while I was her first legally blind student she has done an awesome job of adapting and helping me.

 

I would definitely look into the things /u/DocCyane mentioned. Testing accommodations, adaptive technology, and syllabus review are all key. However if you are like me you might not want to do a different project or have someone else take notes for you. I prefer to take my own notes and I've gotten pretty good at getting the notes I need just by listening to lectures since I can't read the board. By that same token I like to do the same projects as my peers, if it's overly visual then I may ask to do something less visual, but as a standard I prefer to do what everyone else is doing.

 

And here is where I'm going to respectfully disagree with /u/DocCyane, they made some awesome points but I disagree with the following:

 

>I do NOT recommend talking with professors individually, as they are usually not up to date on the legal responsibilities a school has for differently-abled students.

 

I totally get the frustration of working with instructors who don't get it all the way, but in my experience they figure out. I find that self advocating directly to the instructor shows a few things about you. It shows that you take charge of your disability, you are looking to be a productive member of the class despite your challenges, you have self confidence, and you respect the instructor enough to fully tell them what is going on and to have a discussion with them about the problems that you face. The first day of every semester I make a point of staying after class with a new teacher and tell them everything about my challenges, and how they can help. This leads to good discussion and mutual respect. In addition, my father teaches on the University level and has had one totally blind student and several legally blind students in the past. He has told me that every year the disability office sends him a stack of learning profiles for all of students who have disabilities ranging from learning disabilities, to visual impairments, to hearing impairments. He has told me that in his experience it is extremely difficult to keep track of all of these needs for every one of his students in all of his classes. He values students taking the time to talk with him so that he knows exactly who they are and what they need from him, and then he accommodates. I actually can't recommend self advocating directly to the instructor enough.

 

That being said, if your instructor is not working with you, absolutely get Student Disability Services to intervene on your behalf, you aren't stuck just dealing with an uncooperative professor, however I prefer to get help intervening as a last resort, and I've only had to do it once in my memory.

 

Anyway, that's my two cents, good luck!

Depending upon the legislation where you live (it may vary college to college) as has already been mentioned, don't go to your professors with this, go to the special needs department or whatever your particular school is going to call it. You'll need an evaluation from your doctor stating both the level of your vision and your specific requirements. You should talk to your doctor about this in detail before he or she fills in the paperwork. The college should pay someone to take duplicate notes for you, you should be able to get digital copies of all of the class material etc. A lot more schools are using ebooks so you may want to consider getting a tablet with a really good screen to use as an e-reader. And something that I'm trying to encourage my boyfriend, who is also low vision, to do is learn how to touch type. It is incredibly helpful.


Once you have your doctors report take it to your special needs department. They should fill out a form detailing your requirements. That is what you'll give to your profs.

At age 47 my boyfriend went back to University and did four a year honours program in public-policy management. It was extremely difficult but he got through it. Don't be afraid to ask for help if you need it.

If you are going to buy a tablet look into one that has an OLED display, the contrast and brightness are much better than your average tablet. My boyfriend bought one last year and it is incredibly helpful. He's probably only got a year left where it's going to be of any use to him but right now he's enjoying it.

Your Disabled Student Services department should talk with you in depth about the accommodations they can make for you. I do NOT recommend talking with professors individually, as they are usually not up to date on the legal responsibilities a school has for differently-abled students.

You can ask to have another student copy their lecture notes for you.

You can take tests and quizzes early if you need more time, or take the test in the Disabled Student Services office with some assistance (ex: someone to read the questions to you).

You can review the syllabus at the beginning of the course and determine if a project is outside your skill set. Then have DSS and the professor generate an alternative project.

Use adaptive technology. I don't know enough to comment specifically on this.

And the little things, like priority registration, transportation, etc.

Congratulations on going back to school and good luck.

I have more explanation here:
http://rp-vip.blogspot.com/2015/12/its-complicated.html