Wearing two microphones during class is not typical for Linus Abraham, assistant professor of journalism and mass communication.

One microphone projects his voice in the large lecture hall; the other transmits his voice via a telephone line to Aspen, Colo. In nanoseconds, the words spoken by Abraham will be displayed on Katie Greiman’s laptop.

Greiman, senior in communication studies, is 80 percent hearing impaired. Her disability has never been much of an obstacle, though. She wore hearing aids when she was younger. She attended speech school and was tutored.

When she enrolled at Iowa State, Greiman had to sit at the front of the class and read the instructor’s lips. She would sometimes ask another student to take “carbon notes” – she would literally give a sheet of carbon to another student to create a copy of the notes.

“The problem with that was there would be a lot of words missing,” she said.

Closed captioning enables Greiman to “hear” what the instructor is saying and take her own notes.

Ronald Grooms, systems analyst for Academic Information Technologies Disabled User Services, was instrumental in arranging captioning for Greiman.

“The listener, or captionist, in Aspen types onto a chording keyboard that is linked to a computer that “translates” abbreviated words into simple text,” he said. “A second phone line will transmit the text back to the lecture hall onto the mini laptop screen.”

Grooms said this semester there are five students using closed captioning. The department hopes to offer wireless access in the near future.

“The bottleneck is the software,” he said. “Captionists’ software doesn’t interface with Windows.”

Jeff Thill, a paraplegic student, said when he enrolled in 1998, there were very few technological advantages for him. This semester he is taking two courses online and does not have to deal with regularly going to campus.

He is an off-campus student in agriculture.

Sitting in a wheelchair presents Thill with many obstacles that technology still cannot overcome. Thill said most buildings on campus have insufficient accommodations. Drinking fountains are positioned too high.

Some buildings do not have direct access, meaning students in wheelchairs must enter a connected building first.

Restrooms are also an issue. Some buildings do not have handicap-accessible bathrooms.

“The worst thing is when you find a bathroom that has a big enough stall and someone who is not disabled is using it while the other ones are empty,” Thill said.

These obstacles are merely an annoyance for Thill. He enjoys learning online but said that he would prefer upper-level courses in a classroom setting.

“Technology will be the equalizer for people with disabilities,” Thill said.