Assistive Technology

1
Assistive Technology

2
Agenda

• Questions?
• Assistive technology
• or designing for people with disabilities

3
Motivations

• Altruism
• Legal Requirements
• Section 508 1973/1986 Rehabilitation Act
• 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act
• Everyone is impaired sometime
• Intriguing interface challenges

4
Famous inventions

• Cassette tape
• Ball point pen
• Telephone

5
Assistive Technology

• Access
• Prosthetic

6
Access

• Access to GUIs for the blind
• speech
• Braille
• Redundant visual output for the deaf
• Alternate input devices
• sippuff, single switch

7
Prosthetic

• Communication for speech impaired
• Sign language translators
• Educational software for cognitive impairments

8
Vision

• Low-vision
• Color blindness
• Blindness
• affordances of different media
• interface model
• special purpose doesnt work
• challenge of generality

9
What is a model of a GUI?

• Touching the Rock

10
Hearing

• Redundant output
• hardware (flashing title bar)
• software (text to speech)
• An increasing problem?
• Population
• Phone interfaces

11
Deafness

• Communication aids
• Sign language
• Speech training
• Writing aids
• Preventable form of mental retardation
• Importance of language development
• Seeing Voices (Sacks)

12
Physical / Mobility

• Sticky, slow, bounce keys
• Alternate input
• sip and puff
• eye gaze
• Challenge of single switch design
• Voice input

13
Speech

• Conversation is a dialogue in which the one
  taking breath is called the listener
• 150 words/minute
• Predictive interface, stored phrases, iconic
  boards
• Chat

14
Cognitive Impairments

• Memory
• Perception
• Problem-solving
• Learning impairments
• redundant input-output, motivation
• Language impairments
• dyslexia (spelling corrector)
• aphasia (symbolic languages)
• Everyday impairments - in-place information
• Writing Home

15
Were all disabled

• Environment
• Fatigue
• Injury
• Aging
• Changing role of information technology