Hi Natalya,
This seems to be extremely testing conditions. My personal opinion would be to consider non medical help support (ie. note taker) Maybe the DSA could be used to pay for this support locally to avoid additional travel expenses and the possible difficulty in recruiting a suitable support worker.
Under the conditions you have outlined it would appear that reliable use of any electronic device would be tested if there is no constant power source. As such I would suggest that good old fashion pen and paper would be the most reliable option in these conditions. I would personally weigh up the risk of failure of such equipment in this environment and would deem this too high for any technology to be a robust and reliable solution. After all, if the technology fails and the student has no means of recording his research it may but the whole point of the field trip in jeopardy.
Best regards,
Mark Phillips
Needs Assessor,
Student Support and Wellbeing Division
50 Park Place, Cardiff, CF10 3AT
t. +44 (0) 2920 876987 www.cardiff.ac.uk/studentsupport
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Mark Phillips
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50 Plas y Parc, Caerdydd, CF10 3AT
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w. www.cardiff.ac.uk/studentsupport
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-----Original Message-----
From: Discussion list for disabled students and their support staff. [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Natalya Dell
Sent: 21 November 2014 13:24
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Dictaton into spreadsheet on tablet/smartphone w/no Internet
Hi
I have a postgrad research student who will spend several months in the middle of nowhere (12hrs to nearest tiny village) to study animals in the jungle soon. Electricity is via a car battery and that gets charged by a generator as and when. There is no Internet except for maybe wet-string once every few months at nearest village (maybe).
For various disability reasons student is unable to handwrite, type or do repetitive input of data so is having to use voice dictation. Stude is a very proficient Dragon user.
Stude is asking me if there is /anything/ on a smartphone or tablet which would let them dictate voice to text directly into a spreadsheet (which can export as CSV or similar) cell by cell directly without Internet access. I know the Dragon app requires Internet.
Stude would like to be able to see their data in the field itself so they can identify errors like someone who'd traditionally handwritten would do.
Stude will be running around after said animals so a Windows laptop in the field itself won't be feasible. Anything stude has to use must be waterproof.
If not then we have a backup plan but stude isn't as happy with that as they worry it's a risk to their data.
Sadly I can't bounce this to a DSA assessor cos new medical evidence rules are delaying the student's ability to apply (old letters won't do). GP insisted on rereferral back to secondary care even tho they can't treat said impairment and secondary care are being slow ObGrr :(
Any ideas welcomed.
Natalya
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