From the Virtual Computing Laboratory to D.H.Hill’s Learning Commons, campus is bursting with advanced and unique technology. The Disability Services Office boasts equally impressive, though lesser known, hardware in its Assistive Technology division.
AT is, according to Rebecca Sitton, AT coordinator at DSO, “any piece of equipment to help meet the need of an individual who has lost their ability to naturally to do something.”
“It’s important to have assistive technology because technology bridges the gap between what our natural abilities are and what we need to do,” Sitton said.
Starting with glasses and contacts lenses, humans rely on multiple forms of technology to increase their abilities. The AT department uses this need to open up all areas of the University to as many students as possible.
“[Without AT,] I don’t think we would have as diverse a student population as we have here,” Sitton said. “If we didn’t have alternative ways of learning, you’d be limiting the population that could attend the University.”
This idea is important to the Center for Universal Design as well, as they focus on creating designs that the largest number of people can use.
“Assistive technology is used to enhance human performance and cognition,” said Sean Vance, the director of the CUD. “It’s basically how we provide people with the ability to overcome any type of impairment they have.”
For quite a few students, recent advances can make all the difference in getting to where they want to be. Sitton recalls emails from students who write about being able to take tests independently and graduate or who can point to the technology actively improving their ability to learn.
“The variables of people are different,” Vance said. “We’re trying to understand those variables.”
According to Vance, understanding the range of human ability is the start of designing with all people in mind. AT also looks to speak to these ranges of ability. For computer users having trouble seeing the screen, JAWS, or Java Accommodation With Speech, reads aloud the words displayed on a screen, according to Sitton.
In terms of hardware, students can couple a refreshable Braille display with their keyboard. Line by line, the display converts a line of text on a monitor into a line of Braille. AT can also make graphs and visual aids into “tactile graphics.”
According to Sitton, students can use raised-line drawing kits in class to make diagrams that can touch, such as a parabola in calculus or demand curve in economics. For even more complicated images, Sitton can use thermal paper and a special printer to change the images.
“[The image] goes through a machine, which heat activates where your lines are, and the lines puff up,” Sitton said. She has already used the machine to make tactile maps for students, which provide directions to DSO’s office.
Just as microphones make a professor more audible in an auditorium, FM transmitters worn by lecturers produce signals which broadcast directly to a headset a student wears. Students with trouble hearing can also download the iPhone application Proloquo2Go, which speaks aloud typed text or phrases associated with preset images. Technology like this, which includes incipient forms of texting, is an important way to improve communication, according to Sitton.
Voice recognition software, which comes standard with most computers, makes computers accessible without a key or mouse. Not only does the program’s ability to recognize a person’s voice increase with use, “you could use something like AutoCAD with your voice,” Sitton said.
Livescribe’s Smartpen combines an infrared camera and microphone to couple electronic copies of both notes and lecture audio. The paper, which can be purchased with the pen at common office supply stores, is a grid of dots which the camera uses to stitch together a PDF of anything the pen writes. When a user uploads a lecture, other viewers can watch the notes being written as the lecture audio is played.
The camera can also pick up the stop, start, and record buttons printed at the bottom as well as arrows to jump between bookmarks the note-taker creates or, by touching a place on the bar, fast forward or rewind to any spot in the lecture. The Smartpen has a screen which displays the final answer of a calculator printed on the inside of the cover and which changes orientation for right- and left-handed users.
According to Sitton, technology such as the Smartpen embodies a shift in assistive technology toward more affordable, common, and compact designs. As AT becomes more mainstream, every person benefits.
“This was not created for someone with a disability, and it helps with everyone’s function,” Sitton said. “A lot of things that we think of meeting one need actually meet a multitude of needs. We’re trying to evoke that principle across campus. However you teach your class, it has multiple modes of access. But it’s not just cool, you’re giving people a chance to listen again.”
This field of Rehabilitation Engineering is an emerging and diverse field, according to Sitton.
“It’s wide open; it touches everything that we do,” she said.
Engineers who work with buildings, software, cars, or mechanical devices can all use their skills to provide increased access.
“Everything I do is an attempt to make somebody’s life better and easier, and using technology to do it,” Sitton said. “And it doesn’t always have to be anything fancy.”
According to Vance as well, simplicity is a hallmark of improving technology. “The most important thing we have realized in studying the way people interact with their environment is that there are subtle things that can be done to enhance their ability to understand and use the design,” Vance said. “When you don’t do that, it causes frustration and confusion. Our goal is to make things better.”
