The evolving face of student disability: a program evaluation of the LiveScribe Echo program at Humboldt State University

Disability services at the university level are an important aspect of higher education success for students with various forms of disability. Legislative and cultural changes over the past few decades have created an environment where the societal treatment of disability has moved from the medical to the social centric model. These changes have stimulated the growth and development of disability studies and disability services at the university level. A major skill needed to successfully achieve success in academia is that of notetaking, which is for some disabled students, a challenge. Adaptive technology, such as the LiveScribe Echo smartpen, has allowed university disability service departments to provide more options for enhancing the notetaking of disabled students. This research is centered on an evaluation of the LiveScribe Echo smartpen program currently offered through Humboldt State University's Student Disability Resource Center. Mixed methodology including training participant observation, trainer interviews, and an online survey of preexisting users was utilized to access the overall success of the program. The program evaluation was conducted across the measures of training, use of specific features, frequency of use, and student reported academic skills improvement. Almost all students rated the program rather high in training, the technology and their related academic skills improvement and can thus be interpreted as the training program in specific and the entire program in general demonstrates a high rate of effectiveness.