”

Ultimately, the Ricoh solution has done more

than help learning for our sight-impaired students,

it is providing all staff members with a new tool

to help them do their jobs even better.

‘‘

Rutherglen High Schooland Ricoh ESA TransFormer

Rutherglen High School – a State school located near the

NSW/Victoria border, and one that all too clearly

demonstrates a commitment to providing all students with

an equal opportunity education experience. That

commitment is evidenced in the School’s innovative

application of a Ricoh document scanning and

transformation solution implemented by the region’s local

Ricoh Business Partner.

Challenge: An extra edge for blind studentsFor two of Rutherglen High’s brother and sister students – Nathaniel

and Emma-Mae Schmidt – being blind from birth is something they

refuse to let stand in the way of a future university education and

subsequent career. The reality, though, is that it does represent

challenges both to them and the School.

According to IT Coordinator and Teacher Michael Leverett, the main

challenge is in providing the two students with a practical alternative

to the enormous amount of printed material – study notes, text

books, photocopied document extracts, etc. – that are par for the

course for today’s students.

“We actually have two staff members who manage the conversion of

documents to Braille,” he explains. “In addition, both Nathaniel and

Emma-Mae use a software application [JAWS for Windows®] on their

notebook computers that can read aloud text documents.

“The main problems we were facing were that Brailled documents

are incredibly bulky and time consuming to produce, and we had

no means of quickly transforming hard copy documents to digital

text documents.”

Solution: Ricoh ESA TransFormerIt was during a meeting with the School’s local Ricoh Business

Partner that Michael put forward those challenges; and within two

weeks, a solution had been tried, tested and proposed – Ricoh ESA

(Embedded Software Architecture) TransFormer.

A product developed entirely by Ricoh Australia software

development specialists in response to market demands, ESA

TransFormer is gaining a strong market presence throughout the Asia

Pacific Region.

Embedded within one of the School’s Ricoh multifunction devices

(MFDs), the software intercepts scanned documents, runs them

through advanced OCR (Optical Character Recognition) then

transforms them to a digital file in a selected format prior to storage

in a nominated folder.

“When the Ricoh Business Partner sent through sample files that had

been generated with the solution, I gave them to Nathaniel to try

with his JAWS reader,” Michael explains. “And from that point on, it

became a solution that has steamrolled throughout the school.”

In a matter of minutesFrom days to a matter of minutes – that’s a typical cut-down in

lead times for Rutherglen teachers preparing “printed” materials

for Nathaniel and Emma-Mae. It may sound, initially, to be a

rather extreme claim, but it’s just as much the result of an

ESA TransFormer-enabled workflow change as it is the speed

of the solution itself.

In commenting first on the solution’s ease-of-use and speed, Pam

Lewis, one of the School’s staff members responsible for Brailling,

says: “In most cases I’m able to scan and transform a 20-page

document in a matter of minutes. It’s quite usual for documents to

have been scanned, transformed and saved to file by the time I’ve

walked back to my desk from the MFD. It’s simply that fast.”

In contrast, preparing a Braille version of that same 20-page

document would easily have taken either Pam or her colleague,

Lyndell, several hours. Add on to that the time involved in binding the

document and it is clear that even though Braille documents are still

an important part of the students’ resources, their preparation is

labour-intensive.

The largest savings in time are being realised in lead times. Where

the sheer volume of documents to be Brailled meant a constant

backlog of work for Pam and Lyndell, teachers were in the position of

having to think almost a week ahead in regard to any “printed”

materials required for classes which Nathaniel and his

sister attended.

It’s now a quantum change. “Even minutes before a class, if I come

across a document or some printed material that I want to use in the

class, I can take it to the Ricoh MFD, press just a couple of buttons

on the control panel and have it ready in text or even spreadsheet

form in about a minute,” Michael states. “For Nathaniel and Emma-

Mae, it means they’re not being disadvantaged and finally have

access to the same materials the rest of their classmates have.”

“For Nathaniel and Emma-Mae, it means they’re not being disadvantaged and finally have access to the same materials the rest of their classmates have.”

Even minutes before a class, if I come across a document or some printed

material that I want to use in the class, I can take it to the Ricoh MFD,

press just a couple of buttons on the control panel and have it ready in

text or even spreadsheet form in about a minute.

‘‘

”

words or phrases or have the JAWS program read it back to me at

high speed,” Nathaniel explains. “It’s something you simply can’t do

with a Braille book.”

Per-seat licences eliminatedWith limited available finances, Rutherglen has introduced what is

arguably one of the most cost-effective document OCR and

transformation solutions available in its class. This is being realised by

the fact that ESA TransFormer has allowed the School to bypass the

need for a per-seat OCR licence model while still providing full

functionality across the entire school.

As a result, the use of the solution has extended well beyond its

initial purpose, bringing with it an increasingly dynamic approach to

the development and preparation of teaching materials. Michael

explains: “Once teachers are shown how to use the Ricoh solution,

they’re very quick to pick up on its versatility and use it. One of the

ways we use it is to scan a document to Word, remove key words

and have students fill in the appropriate words as an exercise. It

takes no more than a few minutes and I have a great exercise for the

students.

“Ultimately, the Ricoh solution has done more than help learning for

our sight-impaired students, it is providing all staff members with a

new tool to help them do their jobs even better.”

Making light workFor Nathaniel and his sister, the Ricoh document transformation

solution has brought with it a dramatic reduction in one of almost

any school student’s most dreaded loads – homework. Interestingly,

though, it’s a reduction brought about by an increase in the amount

of material now available to them.

“In History and Maths particularly, I’m getting more in-class notes

and resources from teachers simply because they’re able to prepare

them more easily,” Nathaniel says. “Because of that, I’m getting

through more work in class and not having to catch up at home as

much as I had to in the past.”

Quite literally, making light work of what was previously a heavy and

cumbersome bundle, is precisely one of the key benefits the Ricoh

solution is delivering to Nathaniel and his sister. Increasingly, USB

thumb-drives and email attachments are taking the place of bulky

Braille books, which by the nature of their form, are easily five times

larger and heavier than their standard print counterparts.

An additional benefit for Nathaniel, Emma-Mae and, next year, their

younger sister, is that the text documents created by ESA TransFormer

afford them the ability to skim through documents – something those

with sight tend to take for granted. “It means that for the first time if

I’m studying a novel, for example, I’m able to do a quick search for

Ricoh Australia Pty. Ltd. 8 Rodborough Road, Frenchs Forest, NSW 2086. Phone: 1800 181 002 Fax: 02 8977 1100 Web: ricoh.com.auRicoh New Zealand Pty. 60 Stanley Street, Parnell, Auckland New Zealand. Phone 0800 2 Ricoh (0800 2 74264) Fax: 09 915 1401 Web: ricoh.co.nz

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