The Note-Taker: An assistive technology that allows students who are legally blind to take notes in the classroom

Note-taking is a fundamental learning activity that should be practiced by every serious secondary or post-secondary student. Research has shown that the mental processing that occurs during note-taking helps students consolidate and retain classroom instruction, even if they never study their notes afterward. However, students who are legally blind can have difficulty taking notes in the classroom. Even with a visual aid (such as s monocular) for viewing the front of the room, a fast paced class can make it difficult for a student who is legally blind to keep up with the lectures - especially in more advanced classes. Some schools have attempted to help such students by equipping classrooms with audio or video recording systems, or by paying other students to take notes for them. However, these approaches do not actively engage the student in note-taking during the lecture. In this paper we discuss our research, which is aimed at developing a portable Tablet-PC-based Note-Taker that can be carried from classroom to classroom by the student, and does not require lecturers to adapt their presentations in any way.