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  • Assessing Assistive Technology

    Assessing Assistive Technology

    BY JASON RHYNO

    Via NEADS ( www.neads.ca )

    Purchasing technology can crash your bank account but there are ways to cut the cost.

    Let’s face it: Apple is cool. Apple is cool for a variety of reasons, but mostly because they are innovative. Five years ago, who would have thought that a blind person could use a touch screen phone? (Apple, apparently.)

    I’m speaking of course of the iPhone 3GS, which has an assortment of accessibility features like VoiceOver and is probably the most easy to use voice activated software on the market. But the tech market is constantly being flooded with new hardware and software, most of which will cost a good chunk of your newly acquired pay cheque or your government funded education. Although far from universal, accessibility options on commercial software and hardware is certainly a step in the right direction when it comes to raising the minimum level of access.

    Uh, Where’s the Start Button?

    “The problem with going and buying something off the shelf,” says Ryan Vernon, faculty member and librarian at B.C. College and Institute Library Services, Langara College, “ is that it’s really expensive and if doesn’t work out for you, you’ve probably made a huge capital investment that can’t be recouped.” Vernon spends much of his time formatting print sources into alternative formats for disabled students. He recommends looking for programs that are free and programs that have trials, like Kurzweil, which offers free runs of some of their software. A Kurzweil license, however, can run close to two thousand dollars. Yikes.

    But with the recent popularity of open source software and a general push towards offering more free programs and information online, the time is ripe to start picking from the proverbial tech tree. Pack a lunch and spend a little time online. Adaptech (www.adaptech.dawsoncollege.qc.ca) has an extensive list of free and inexpensive software and the recently re-vamped NEADS website has links to all kinds of technology related sites.

    Many companies, like TD, have labs where employees with disabilities can test drive new hardware and programs. The employee will work with an expert, find out what works best, and then that particular piece of hardware or software will be ordered.

    “I think we’re going to see this with all big companies who do business in the states,” Vernon says. A law in the U.S., Section 508, requires that companies that do business with the federal government have certain accessibility standards built in, he says. “So for a company like Xerox who sell a lot of copiers to the government it’s a necessity to them.”

    Funding

    For students, much of the funding is done at the provincial level, through various grants and loans. You have to be eligible for a student loan, have to have persons with a disability status in addition to other requirements. If you don’t meet those requirements, chances are you won’t get hardware support. There are also numerous organizations that provide assistance. Check with your local disability services to see what’s out there. Your school may even have a research lab that specializes in assistive technology as much of the research going into this field is done at the academic level.

    Another good thing to keep in mind is that hardware can be re-purposed. Those old PC’s still have some miles left, so ask around. You may be able to find decent hardware that your friends, family and local businesses don’t need. And again, there are plenty of free software programs available that are just as good as the commercial ones.

  • One Size Fits All?

    One Size Fits All?

    If there’s one expression I dislike more than any other, it’s one size fits all. It may be true in some cases, but not so much when it comes to disability. In fact, the opposite is true. Consider, for example: a shirt can come in several different sizes, but carries the same basic design. This is a flaw because human bodies come in all shapes and sizes, which means that the shirt, despite the different sizes, doesn’t quite mesh. The collar may be too tight, the sleeves create a vise on your shoulders, the body of the shirt is too large, too short, too tight, or it’s just an unflattering fit in general.

    The same philosophy can be applied to disabilities of all types: you’re not going to get a perfect fit every time. Things need to be changed and adapted to better fit the requirements of what you need in order to succeed in your education and chosen career. In my case, it certainly changed. In elementary school, I was dealing with speech therapy classes, an interpreter, a frequency modulation (FM) system, and exemptions from French classes. By high school, all of it would be gone (except for the FM system), replaced with extra test accommodations, and a note-taker who transcribed what the teacher said into text on a computer screen.

    In university, things would change even further after a particularly jarring experience with the speaker system in one of the university campuses’ largest lecture halls. This problem, combined with the feedback I would constantly get caused me to drop the FM system for good. I never looked back. I decided to keep the accommodations for tests and exams, and I also went with note-takers full-time, admiring their typing speed as I read over their shoulder.

    It was approximately a year after graduation that I learned that I wasn’t alone when it came to FM system feedback. It wasn’t common, but it wasn’t exactly rare. It made me realize that every disability plan must be tailored to fit the student’s needs, because it reflects how someone works and how they contribute. Therefore, the ‘shirt’ didn’t fit me well and had to be altered.

    As time moves forward, technology does as well, adding new things that can remove gaps that current technology cannot. As an example, consider Kutzweil Education, a program that assists those with dyslexia or learning disabilities. It’s definitely a recent development that transcribes text to speech, and many other cool features are included such as highlighting, annotating, and extracting outlines of chapters. It’s fairly new, as the earliest I’d heard about this program was 2008 –the company’s been around for at least a decade beforehand. Guide dogs are also fairly recent – particularly because of expansions into those with other health disorders. It also doesn’t necessarily fit the ‘shirt’ in their cases. This is why the plan to help accommodate individual persons should always be adjusted accordingly.

    As technology and time moves on – the shirt may be modified or removed entirely in order to get the best possible equipment that you need in order to succeed in your educational (or work) environment.

  • Assessing Assistive Technology

    Assessing Assistive Technology

    Purchasing technology can crash your bank account but there are ways to cut the cost.

    Let’s face it: Apple is cool. Apple is cool for a variety of reasons, but mostly because they are innovative. Five years ago, who would have thought that a blind person could use a touch screen phone? (Apple, apparently.)

    I’m speaking of course of the iPhone 3GS, which has an assortment of accessibility features like VoiceOver and is probably the most easy to use voice activated software on the market. But the tech market is constantly being flooded with new hardware and software, most of which will cost a good chunk of your newly acquired pay cheque or your government funded education. Although far from universal, accessibility options on commercial software and hardware is certainly a step in the right direction when it comes to raising the minimum level of access.

    Uh, Where’s the Start Button?

    “The problem with going and buying something off the shelf,” says Ryan Vernon, faculty member and librarian at B.C. College and Institute Library Services, Langara College, “ is that it’s really expensive and if doesn’t work out for you, you’ve probably made a huge capital investment that can’t be recouped.” Vernon spends much of his time formatting print sources into alternative formats for disabled students. He recommends looking for programs that are free and programs that have trials, like Kurzweil, which offers free runs of some of their software. A Kurzweil license, however, can run close to two thousand dollars. Yikes.

    But with the recent popularity of open source software and a general push towards offering more free programs and information online, the time is ripe to start picking from the proverbial tech tree. Pack a lunch and spend a little time online. Adaptech (www.adaptech.dawsoncollege.qc.ca) has an extensive list of free and inexpensive software and the recently re-vamped NEADS website has links to all kinds of technology related sites.

    Many companies, like TD, have labs where employees with disabilities can test drive new hardware and programs. The employee will work with an expert, find out what works best, and then that particular piece of hardware or software will be ordered.

    “I think we’re going to see this with all big companies who do business in the states,” Vernon says. A law in the U.S., Section 508, requires that companies that do business with the federal government have certain accessibility standards built in, he says. “So for a company like Xerox who sell a lot of copiers to the government it’s a necessity to them.”

    Funding

    For students, much of the funding is done at the provincial level, through various grants and loans. You have to be eligible for a student loan, have to have persons with a disability status in addition to other requirements. If you don’t meet those requirements, chances are you won’t get hardware support. There are also numerous organizations that provide assistance. Check with your local disability services to see what’s out there. Your school may even have a research lab that specializes in assistive technology as much of the research going into this field is done at the academic level.

    Another good thing to keep in mind is that hardware can be re-purposed. Those old PC’s still have some miles left, so ask around. You may be able to find decent hardware that your friends, family and local businesses don’t need. And again, there are plenty of free software programs available that are just as good as the commercial ones.

    BY JASON RHYNO

    Via NEADS ( http://www.neads.ca/ )