[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/atlas-office.jpg” caption=”The Assistive Technology and Learning Assistance Support lab (ATLAS) offers adaptive software for students with disabilities. Photo by Chris Martin. “]Tucked away in the basement of the Commons Building is a department known as the Assistive Technology and Learning Assistance Support lab (ATLAS). Intentionally not an imposing space, the ATLAS lab is small, but does the mammoth job of coordinating study strategies for students with learning or other disabilities.

ATLAS' mandate is twofold: it provides counseling to students with mental health issues or learning disabilities as well as providing assistive technology. Accommodations range from smaller quiet testing areas to innovative assistive technology solutions, and encompass a broad range of student needs.

“Students tend to come to ATLAS with problems, but it is even more useful if you use the resources offered here regularly,” says Mei-Ju Shih, learning disabilities counselor for ATLAS.

ATLAS features a computer lab with adaptive software specifically designed for students with disabilities. Software such as Kurzweil 3000 enables students to have texts read aloud to them. Other software allows students to customize screen properties and dictate their essays into word processors.

In the coming years, ATLAS hopes to expand adaptive software to computers all over campus, since assistive technology is currently only available in the lab itself and in select locations around campus.

ATLAS also helps students attain bursaries so they can purchase their own software, which they can then install on their own computers, ensuring that they benefit from assistive technology well past their academic years.