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Assistive Technology (AT) is a generic term that includes assistive, adaptive, and rehabilitative devices and the process used in selecting, locating, and using them. AT promotes greater independence for people with disabilities by enabling them to perform tasks that they were formerly unable to accomplish, or had great difficulty accomplishing, by providing enhancements to or changed methods of interacting with the technology needed to accomplish such tasks. According to disability advocates, technology is often created without regard to people with disabilities, creating unnecessary barriers to hundreds of millions of people. Look up disability in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...
By the mid 20th century humans had achieved a mastery of technology sufficient to leave the surface of the Earth for the first time and explore space. ...
Examples Universal (or broadened) accessibility, or universal design means greater usability, particularly for people with disabilities. But, argue advocates of assistive technology, universally accessible technology yields great rewards to the typical user; good accessible design is universal design, they say. One example is the "curb cuts" (or dropped curbs) in the sidewalk at street crossings. While these curb cuts enable pedestrians with mobility impairments to cross the street, these also aid parents with carriages and strollers, shoppers with carts, and travellers and workers with pull-type bags, not to mention skateboarders and inline skaters. Universal design, which is related to inclusive design and design for all, is an approach to the design of products, services and environments to be usable by as many people as possible regardless of age, ability or situation. ...
Usability is a term used to denote the ease with which people can employ a particular tool or other human-made object in order to achieve a particular goal. ...
A curb cut (US) or dropped kerb (UK) is a ramp leading smoothly down from a sidewalk to an intersecting street, rather than abruptly ending with a curb and dropping roughly 10-15 cm (4~6 inches). ...
A standard skateboard An old-school skateboard A skateboard is a four wheeled platform used for the activity of skateboarding. ...
The roller skate is a type of skate with wheels to be used on solid ground (as opposed to the ice skate which is to be used on ice. ...
As an example, the modern telephone is inaccessible to people who are deaf or hard of hearing. Combined with a text telephone (also known as a TDD [Telephone Device for the Deaf] and in the USA generally called a TTY[TeleTYpewriter]), which converts typed characters into tones that may be sent over the telephone line, a deaf person is able to communicate immediately at a distance. Together with "relay" services, in which an operator reads what the deaf person types and types what a hearing person says, the deaf person is then given access to everyone's telephone, not just those of people who possess text telephones. Many telephones now have volume controls, which are primarily intended for the benefit of people who are hard of hearing, but can be useful for all users at times and places where there is significant background noise. Some have larger keys well-spaced to facilitate accurate dialling. For other uses, see Telephone (disambiguation). ...
A telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD) is an electronic device for text communication via a telephone line, used when one or more of the parties has hearing or speech difficulties. ...
Also, a person with a mobility impairment can have difficulty using calculators. Speech recognition software could recognize short commands and make use of calculators easier. For other uses, see Calculator (disambiguation). ...
Speech recognition (in many contexts also known as automatic speech recognition, computer speech recognition or erroneously as voice recognition) is the process of converting a speech signal to a sequence of words in the form of digital data, by means of an algorithm implemented as a computer program. ...
Toys which have been adapted to be used by children with disabilities may have advantages for "typical" children as well. The Lekotek movement assists parents by lending assistive technology toys and expertise to families. Lekotek, Swedish for play library is an international program to lend Assistive Technology, toys and expertise to disabled children. ...
Telecare Telecare is a particular sort of assistive technology that uses electronic sensors connected to an alarm system to help caregivers manage risk and help vulnerable people stay independent at home longer. An example would be the systems being put in place for senior people such as fall detectors, thermometers (for hypothermia risk), flooding and unlit gas sensors (for people with mild dementia). Notably, these alerts can be customized to the particular person's risks. When the alert is triggered, a message is sent to a carer or contact centre who can respond appropriately. Telecare is the term given to offering remote care of elderly and vulnerable people, providing care and reassurance needed to allow them to remain living in their own homes. ...
Hypothermia is a condition in which an organisms temperature drops below that Required fOr normal metabolism and Bodily functionS. In warm-blooded animals, core [[body Temperature]] is maintained nEar a constant leVel through biologic [[homEostasis]]. But wheN the body iS exposed to cold Its internal mechanismS may be unable...
For other uses, see Dementia (disambiguation). ...
Technology similar to Telecare can also be used to act within a person's home rather than just to respond to a detected crisis. Using one of the examples above, unlit gas sensors for people with dementia can be used to trigger a device that turns off the gas and tells someone what has happened.
Designing for people with dementia is a good example of how the design of the interface of a piece of AT is critical to its usefulness. People with dementia or any other identified user group must be involved in the design process to make sure that the design is accessible and usable. In the example above, a voice message could be used to remind the person with dementia to turn off the gas himself, but whose voice should be used, and what should the message say? Questions like these must be answered through user consultation, involvement and evaluation.
Assistive technology products
Accessible computer input Sitting at a desk with a QWERTY keyboard and a mouse remains the dominant way of interacting with a personal computer. Some AT reduces the strain of this way of work through ergonomic accessories with height-adjustable furniture, footrests, wrist rests, and arm supports to ensure correct posture. Keyguards fits over the keyboard to help prevent unintentional keypresses. Ergonomics (or human factors) is the application of scientific information concerning humans to the design of objects, systems and environment for human use (definition adopted by the International Ergonomics Association in 2007). ...
Alternatively AT may attempt to improve the ergonomics of the devices themselves:
- Ergonomic keyboards reduce the discomfort and strain of typing.
- Chorded keyboards have a handful of keys (one per digit per hand) to type by ‘chords’ which produce different letters and keys.
- Expanded keyboards with larger, more widely-spaced keys.
- Compact and miniature keyboards.
- Dvorak Simplified Keyboard layout, in which the most common keys are located at either the left or right side of the keyboard.
Input devices may be modified to make them easier to see and understand: A Microwriter MW4 (circa 1980) A chorded keyboard (also called a chord keyboard or chording keyboard) is a computer input device that allows the user to enter characters or commands formed by pressing several keys together, like playing a chord on a piano. ...
The Dvorak Simplified Keyboard layout. ...
- Keyboards with lowercase keys
- Keyboards with big keys.
- Large print keyboard with high contrast colors (such as white on black, black on white, and black on ivory).
- Large print adhesive keyboard stickers in high contrast colors (such as white on black, black on white, and black on yellow).
- Embossed locator dots help find the ‘home’ keys, F and J, on the keyboard.
- Scroll wheels on mice remove the need to locate the scrolling interface on the computer screen.
More ambitiously, and quite crucially when keyboard or mouse prove unusable, AT can also replace the keyboard and mouse with alternative devices: trackballs, joysticks, graphics tablets, touchpads, touch screens, a microphone with speech recognition software, sip-and-puff input, and switch access. Logitech TrackMan A trackball is a pointing device consisting of a ball housed in a socket containing sensors to detect rotation of the ball about two axes—like an upside-down mouse with an exposed protruding ball. ...
Joystick elements: 1. ...
A Wacom Graphire4 graphics tablet. ...
Touchpad and a pointing stick on an IBM Laptop Low resolution close up of a touchpad with a locking button. ...
Podium touchscreen Touchscreens, touch screens, touch panels or touchscreen panels are display overlays which have the ability to display and receive information on the same screen. ...
Speech recognition (in many contexts also known as automatic speech recognition, computer speech recognition or erroneously as voice recognition) is the process of converting a speech signal to a sequence of words in the form of digital data, by means of an algorithm implemented as a computer program. ...
There are very few or no other articles that link to this one. ...
Many people with severe physical or cognitive impairment use one or more switches to access computers. ...
Software can also make input devices easier to use:
- Keyboard shortcuts and MouseKeys allow the user to substitute keyboarding for mouse actions. Macro recorders can greatly extend the range and sophistication of keyboard shortcuts.
- Sticky_keys allows characters or commands to be typed without having to hold down a modifier key (Shift, Ctrl, Alt) while pressing a second key. Similarly, ClickLock is a Microsoft Windows features that remembers a mouse button is down so that items can be highlighted or dragged without holding the mouse button down throughout.
- Customization of mouse or mouse alternatives' responsiveness to movement, double-clicking, and so forth.
- ToggleKeys is a feature of Microsoft Windows 95 onwards. A high sound is heard when the CAPS LOCK, SCROLL LOCK, or NUM LOCK key is switched on and a low sound is heard when any of those keys are switched off.
- Customization of pointer appearance, such as size, color and shape.
- Predictive text
- Spell checkers and grammar checkers
A keyboard shortcut (also known as an accelerator key, shortcut key, or hotkey) is a set of keyboard keys that when pressed simultaneously, perform a predefined task. ...
Mouse keys is a feature of some operating systems used to improve accessibility to disabled users. ...
A macro recorder is a piece of software that allows a user to record mouse and keyboard functions for playback at a later time. ...
Sticky keys is a feature of computer Desktop Environments. ...
Windows redirects here. ...
Windows redirects here. ...
Predictive text is an input technology designed for mobile phones. ...
In computing terms, a spelling checker (also spell checker) is a software program designed to verify the spelling of words in a file, helping a user ensure his/her spelling is correct. ...
In computing terms, a grammar checker is a design feature or a software program designed to verify the grammatical correctness or lack of it in a written text. ...
Durable Medical Equipment (DME) - Seating products that assist people to sit comfortably and safely (seating systems, cushions, therapeutic seats).
- Standing products to support people with disabilities in the standing position while maintaining/improving their health (standing frame, standing wheelchair, active stander).
- Walking products to aid people with disabilities who are able to walk or stand with assistance (canes, crutches, walkers, gait trainers).
- Wheeled mobility products that enable people with mobility disabilities to move freely indoors and outdoors (wheelchairs, scooters)
A standing frame (also known as a stand, stander, standing technology, standing aid, standing device, standing box, tilt table) is assistive technology used by a child or adult who uses a wheelchair for mobility. ...
Wheelchair seating A wheelchair is a device used for mobility by people for whom walking is difficult or impossible, due to illness or disability. ...
Learning difficulties - Age appropriate software
- Cause and effect software[1]
- Hand-eye co-ordination skills software
- Diagnostic assessment software
- Mind mapping software
- Study skills software
- Symbol-based software[2]
- Text-to-speech
- Touch typing software
A hand-drawn mind map A mind map is a diagram used to represent words, ideas, tasks or other items linked to and arranged radially around a central key word or idea. ...
Speech synthesis is the artificial production of human speech. ...
This article does not cite any references or sources. ...
Visual impairment Choice of appropriate hardware and software will depend on the user's level of functional vision.
Hardware - Large monitors.
- Adjustable task lamp, using a fluorescent bulb, shines directly onto the paper and can be adjusted to suit.
- Copyholder holds printed material in near vertical position for easier reading and can adjusted to suit.
- Closed circuit television (CCTV) or video magnifier. Printed materials and objects are placed under a camera and the magnified image is displayed onto a screen.
- Modified cassette recorder. To record a lecture, own thoughts, ideas, notes etc.
- Desktop compact cassette dictation system. To allow audio cassette playback with the aid of a foot pedal.
- Fusers produce tactile materials, for example diagrams and maps, by applying heat to special swell paper.
- Scanner. A device used in conjunction with OCR software. The printed document is scanned and converted into electronic text, which can then be displayed on screen as recognisable text.
- Standalone reading aids are integrate a scanner, optical character recognition (OCR) software and speech software in a single machine, working without a separate PC.[3]
- Refreshable Braille display. An electronic tactile device which is placed under the computer keyboard. A line of cells, that move up and down to represent a line of text on the computer screen, enables the user to read the contents of the computer screen in Braille.
- Electronic Notetaker. A portable computer with a Braille or QWERTY keyboard and synthetic speech. Some models have an integrated Braille display.
- Braille embosser. Embosses Braille output from a computer by punching dots onto paper. It connects to a computer in the same way as a text printer.
- Perkins Brailler. To manually emboss Grade 1 or 2 Braille.
A copyholder is a device that holds written material for typing. ...
Closed-circuit cameras are often used to discourage crime Closed-circuit television (CCTV), as a collection surveillance cameras doing video surveillance, is the use of television cameras for surveillance. ...
A refreshable Braille display is an electro-mechanical device for displaying Braille characters, usually by means of raising dots through holes in a flat surface. ...
A Braille embosser is a printer, necessarily an impact printer, that renders text as Braille. ...
// The Perkins Brailler The Perkins Brailler is a simple, inexpensive machine used to write braille. ...
Software A graphical user interface (or GUI, pronounced gooey) is a method of interacting with a computer through a metaphor of direct manipulation of graphical images and widgets in addition to text. ...
A screen magnifier is software that interfaces with a computers graphical output to present enlarged screen content. ...
A screen reader is a software application that attempts to identify and obtain what is being displayed on the screen. ...
A self-voicing application is an application that provides an aural interface without requiring a separate screen reader. ...
Optical character recognition, usually abbreviated to OCR, is a type of computer software designed to translate images of handwritten or typewritten text (usually captured by a scanner) into machine-editable text, or to translate pictures of characters into a standard encoding scheme representing them (e. ...
Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) Augmentative and alternative communication is a well defined specialty within AT. AAC devices vary widely with respect to their technological sophistication: Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) refers to an area of research, clinical, and educational practice. ...
- Low-tech systems. Simple paper or object based systems, i.e. do not require a battery.
- Light-tech systems. typically consisting of a digitized speech recorder with a touch sensitive display pad and sometimes switch access. Lite-tech systems require a battery.
- High-tech systems. Computerized VOCAs that vary from single purpose appliance-like systems to multipurpose computer-based communication aids. Typically high-tech systems require training and ongoing support to operate the devices.
Deafness and hearing loss An audiometer is a machine used for testing hearing. ...
In computer operating systems, paging memory allocation, paging refers to the process of managing program access to virtual memory pages that do not currently reside in RAM. It is implemented as a task that resides in the kernel of the operating system and gains control when a page fault takes...
A telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD) is an electronic device for text communication via a telephone line, used when one or more of the parties has hearing or speech difficulties. ...
A BBC Ceefax page from January 9, 2007. ...
A commonly-used symbol indicating that a program or movie is closed-captioned. ...
Others - Wakamaru provides companionship, reminds users to take medicine and calls for help if something is wrong.
- Call Reassurance community based program that calls seniors at home ensuring their well-being.
- Cosmobot is part of a play therapy system designed to motivate children to participate in therapy.
Wakamaru is a Japanese domestic robot made by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, primarily intended to provide companionship to elderly and disabled people. ...
There are very few or no other articles that link to this one. ...
References - ^ Bates, Roger; Jones, Melanie (2003). Using Computer Software To Develop Switch Skills. 2003 [Technology and Persons with Disabilities] Conference Proceedings. Retrieved on 2007-02-08.
- ^ Hawes, Paul; Blenkhorn, Paul (2002). Bridging the Gap between Aspiration and Capability for Aphasic and Brain Injured People. 2002 [Technology and Persons with Disabilities] Conference Proceedings. Retrieved on 2007-02-08.
- ^ What is a reading aid – technology information sheet. Royal National Institute for the Blind (2006-09-29). Retrieved on 2007-02-8.
Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ...
is the 39th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...
Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ...
is the 39th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...
Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
is the 272nd day of the year (273rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
See also In human-computer interaction, computer accessibility refers to the usability of a computer system by people with disabilities or age-related limitations. ...
For Wikipedias accessibility guideline, see Wikipedia:Accessibility. ...
Further reading - Behrmann, M. & Schaff, J.(2001). Assisting educators with assistive technology: Enabling children to achieve independence in living and learning. Children and Families 42(3), 24-28.
- Bishop, J. (2003). The Internet for educating individuals with social impairments. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning 19(4), 546-556. Available as a free download
- Cain, S. (2001). Accessing Technology - Using technology to support the learning and employment opportunities for visually impaired users. Royal National Institute for the Blind. ISBN 1-85878-517-0.
- Cook, A., & Hussey, S. (2002). Assistive Technologies - Principles and Practice, 2nd Edition. Mosby. ISBN 0-323-00643-4
- Franklin, K.S. (1991). Supported employment and assistive technology-A powerful partnership. In S.L. Griffin & W.G. Revell (Eds.), Rehabilitation counselor desktop guide to supported employment. Richmond, VA: Virginia Commonwealth University Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Supported Employment.
- Van der Heijden, D. (2005). How Does Alternative Access to Computers Work? Available as an online article.
- Lahm, E., & Morrissette, S. (1994, April). Zap 'em with assistive technology. Paper presented at the annual meeting of The Council for Exceptional Children, Denver, CO.
- Lee, C. (1999). Learning disabilities and assistive technologies; an emerging way to touch the future. Amherst, MA: McGowan Publications.
- McKeown, S. (2000). Unlocking Potential - How ICT can support children with special needs. The Questions Publishing Company Ltd. ISBN 1-84190-041-9
- Nisbet, P. & Poon, P. (1998). Special Access Technology. The CALL Centre, University of Edinburgh. Available as a free download The CALL Centre. ISBN 1-898042-11-X
- Nisbet, P., Spooner, R., Arthur, E. & Whittaker P. (1999). Supportive Writing Technology. The CALL Centre, University of Edinburgh. Available as a free download The CALL Centre. ISBN 1-898042-13-6
- Rose, D. & Meyer, A. (2000). Universal design for individual differences. Educational Leadership, 58(3), 39-43.
- Orpwood, R. Design methodology for aids for the disabled. J Med Eng Technol. 1990 Jan-Feb;14(1):2-10. | PubMed ID: 2342081
- Adlam, T. et al. The installation and support of internationally distributed equipment for people with dementia." IEEE transactions on information technology in biomedicine (1089-7771) yr:2004 vol:8 iss:3 pg:253-257 | download from IEEE (694k PDF)
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