If you haven’t visited Magee’s 6th floor Patient Resource Center recently, now is a great time! We are super excited to announce that we have recently acquired three new 23-inch touchscreen computers with specialized adaptive accessories, including remote controlled touch pads, foot mouse devices, large computer keyboards, and Dragon Speech software complete with headset and microphone for our users with special needs. Pretty cool, huh?
The new computers were acquired through grant funding from the National Network of Libraries of Medicine. By upgrading the technology in our Patient Resource Center, we can enable patients and visitors who are physically and cognitively disabled to access computers and health information resources available online, offering everyone more accessibility. Prior to the grant and installation of the new touchscreen computers, the Patient Resource Center only had three standard desktop computers that provided limited functionality for our disabled users. In some cases, depending on the severity of the patient’s disability, a traditional computer served little to no purpose, resulting in the visitor not being able to use a computer at all.
We have seen some great things since the new computers were installed! Patients have offered tons of positive feedback. In addition to the adaptive accessories, patients have noted that the touchscreen monitor has improved the computer response time, and the new screens are great for those with low vision. We have also received compliments from patients about the fact that there are more computers in the Resource Center. Before with just the three standard computers, there were a lot of times that patients would have to wait for a computer; some patients would end up leaving without the information they were hoping to find. Now with six computers, there is next to no wait time.
Please come up to the 6th floor and try out the new computers! Let us know what you think by completing this survey after your visit. We are always looking to improve our services that we offer, and by completing this survey you are helping us out!
This project has been funded in whole or in part with Federal funds from the National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, under Contract No. HHS-N-276-2011-00003-C with the University of Pittsburgh, Health Sciences Library System.
