Assistive Technology

By Wayne Maruna

  
    Technology. It’s a word we see and hear daily, but what does it really mean?  Do an online search and you will find numerous definitions.  The one I like best is simple and straightforward:  “The application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes.” This leaves a lot under the umbrella of what might be considered technology.

    For this article, I am going to focus on a narrower branch of technology called assistive technology. The Assistive Technology Industry Association (ATIA) defines assistive technology as any item, piece of equipment, software or product system that is used to increase, maintain, or improve the functional capabilities of individuals with disabilities.

    We all benefit from assistive technologies every day and don’t pay much attention:  eye glasses, hearing aids, lever handle door knobs and faucets, closed captioning television services. You don’t have to have a disability to benefit from rear view cameras in cars or so-called ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) height toilets. For those with mobility disabilities, we have wheelchairs and walkers. Some people rely on prosthetic limbs to assist in daily living. Personal emergency response systems (e.g. Lifeline) allow at-risk people to maintain independence and continue to live at home.

    For people who have lost the use of their hands due to injury or disease, there are Sip-and-Puff devices that allow them to control motorized wheelchairs through the application of specific amounts of air pressure via a tube or wand placed in the mouth.  These Sip-and-Puff devices can also add a joystick type of capability to allow the user to control the screen pointer on a computer, providing mouse-like functionality. 

    A more widely used application of assistive technology to computers involves speech-to-text. Perhaps the best known software in this class is Dragon Naturally Speaking from a company called Nuance.  This software allows you to speak into a computer-attached microphone to either control your computer’s functions or to convert spoken words to written text, as in a document or email, just like having a personal typing assistant.  This has also proven helpful for people with dyslexia. There are several versions of Dragon Naturally Speaking sold, depending on the level of need.  Home user versions start at under $100.  Versions intended for use by business professionals jump up to $500 or $600, and versions with specialized legal or healthcare lexicons can cost considerably more.  You can find out more about the software at this link: http://www.nuance.com/dragon/index.htm

    Would you like to explore the assistive technologies already on your Windows Vista, Windows 7, or Windows 8 PC?  Open up your Control Panel and then click on the Ease of Access option. You’ll find that you already have tools to help interact with your machine.

For visual assistance, there is a magnifier option to zoom in on parts of the screen.  There is a narrator tool which is a basic screen reader that reads aloud the text that appears on screen and describes events like error messages. There is an on-screen keyboard that can be used even on non-touch screens by using the mouse. There’s a way to reduce keyboard errors due to accidental keystrokes.  Visual acuity can be enhanced through the use of high contrast themes and color adjustments, along with resized text and icons.

    My Windows 8 Ease of Access Center even includes its own speech recognition application.

  You can command your computer with your voice, dictate documents and email, and even surf the web. There is a tutorial available, and you will need to train your PC to hear and recognize your voice and speaking mannerisms, just like with Dragon Naturally Speaking.  I have not tried it yet, so I cannot speak to its effectiveness.

    Microsoft provides a pretty good summary of the Ease of Access offerings at the following website if you’d care to dig a little deeper. Windows 8 Accessibility Options