[gui-talk] Fwd: Article: Five key trends in assistive technologies

[Steve Pattison]

 From:    John Rae thepenguin at rogers.com
 To:      vip vip-l at softspeak.com.au

Five key trends in assistive technology

Skip Kimpel's Blog
December 4, 2009 

eSchool News had this great article that came out on Thursday in regards to
new trends for assistive technology..

Convergence, portability, and customizability are among the features that
will define the next generation of AT devices for students

Once considered a highly specialized field, assistive technology (AT) now
increasingly can be found in applications and devices sold to the general
public, says a new report that highlights several key trends in AT
development.

The Nation Center for Technology Innovation (NCTI) presented the report
during its annual conference last month. The issue brief, titled "Unleashing
the Power of Innovation for Assistive Technology," comes at a time of great
opportunity for both schools and AT providers, the organization says.

"The confluence of federal stimulus money and guidance from the U.S.
Department of Education's Office of Special Education Programs . to consider
investing in 'state-of-the-art assistive technology and training' affords
the field a rare opportunity to define and shape what state-of-the-art
assistive technology can be," says the brief.

With that goal in mind, NCTI solicited the opinions of more than 65 people
from academia, the education-technology industry, professional associations,
and all levels of government.

Based on this feedback and a review of existing literature, NCTI concluded
that "applications originally designed for the disabled are increasingly
recognized as presenting solutions for the wider consumer market." As a
result, the group said, AT functionality now often is built into mainstream
consumer devices.

Here are the five most significant trends in AT development, according to
NCTI:

1. Convergence. NCTI defines this as the consolidation of various
technological systems into "a single platform to perform multiple
tasks"-such as the iPhone and other smart phones or mobile devices.

These devices have the ability to run multiple applications that can support
and accompany students with disabilities throughout their daily activities.

For example, the brief mentions that students in Taiwan are engaging in an
after-school program with smart phones and the General Packet Radio Service
(GPRS) network. With this technology, students and teachers are able to
interact to an extent that was not possible before.

In the United States, an iPhone application called iSigns can facilitate
communication between deaf students and others who do not sign. Other iPhone
apps for students with disabilities include Picture Scheduler, which helps
students with autism create and organize personal tasks, and iPrompts, which
provides visual prompting tools to help students understand upcoming events
and make choices.

Other examples of convergent technologies include e-Book reader devices and
online sites that cater to handheld technologies, such as Bookshare.org,
which is an online library of digital books underwritten by the Education
Department for students with qualifying print disabilities.

2. Customizability and Universal Design for Learning (UDL). According to the
brief, customizable AT is designed so that it "can be configured in
different ways to meet the needs of individual users."

UDL simply means customizing software to meet the needs of a diverse group
of learners. For example, a UDL curriculum should offer multiple means of
representation (that is, it should give learners various ways of acquiring
information), multiple means of action and expression (it should give
students several alternatives for demonstrating what they know), and
multiple means of engagement (it should motivate and challenge different
learners appropriately).

While much educational software has included customizability in recent
years, NCTI urges developers to include elements of UDL to help all learners
succeed.

Gaming, another technology that recently has gained momentum in education,
is also an area that needs work, says the brief. "Although game developers
have not traditionally focused on accessibility and customizability, there
is a growing movement to ensure that developers keep these features in mind
as they design games," it says.

For instance, some organizations, such as  Universally Accessible Games and
the International Game Developers Association (IDGA) Game Accessibility
Special Interest Group, have supported designing games with customizable
features that will make them universally accessible.

Some UDL features for gaming include the captioning of dialog,
text-to-speech capabilities for on-screen text dialog and instructions, the
ability to magnify areas of the screen, the ability to use an adapted
controller in place of the standard one, and customizable colors for
color-blindness.

Other UDL recommendations include offering variations in the degree of
difficulty and additional supports for users, such as guides and features
that highlight important points or reward effective strategies.

3. Research- or evidence-based design. With technology changing so rapidly,
researchers are beginning to realize that studies of AT's effectiveness
should focus on features, usage, and the user population, rather than
individual products, NCTI says.

"As features beneficial to users with and without disabilities become
commonplace on everyday electronics, AT researchers have found that to stay
current, they need to recognize that state-of-the-art research and evidence
may come from other disciplines or from consumer testing and demands," the
brief notes.

Even without formal studies or market research, it says, AT specialists and
developers can determine utility, interest, and efficacy simply by reading
reviews, determining the number of downloads, and talking or chatting online
with users.

Currently, research that provides information on which features are most
effective for which populations, under which conditions, and for which tasks
is still in the early stages, especially for new technologies, the report
says.

Yet initial research in the area of Augmentative and Alternative
Communication (AAC) devices has shown that AAC systems with static
visual-graphic systems might be more effective for users with autism,
whereas other users might benefit more from speech-generating devices.

Also, "the advent of new technologies and multimodal communication abilities
in both mainstream commercial communication devices and AAC devices has led
to further confirmation of research that multimodal approaches (voice output
devices, gesture, sign, facial expression, picture symbols, and
computer-based technologies) are most effective in meeting a wide variety of
communication needs in a variety of environments," the brief says.

4. Portability. To help promote independence, portability is critical, says
the report. While the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)
requires schools to educate students with disabilities in the least
restrictive environment, portable technologies are helping to redefine the
mandate of "least restrictive environment" and are boosting independence.

One example of portable AT is a laptop computer, especially a netbook. Many
of today's laptops have a host of accessibility features, and netbooks allow
for an even smaller, lighter solution.

Taking the idea of portability one step further, says the brief, is a
growing movement toward high-quality, fully portable, open-source AT. Under
this model, students can carry AT software on their jump drive and use it
whenever appropriate.

CLiCk, Speak is one example of software that can be downloaded onto a jump
drive and is described as "the only free, professional-grade screen
magnifier that works across remote desktop software."

5. Interoperability. According to the brief, interoperability can mean many
things for AT used in school, home, and community settings. It can refer to
a device that can be used on multiple computer platforms, such as Windows or
Mac OS X; or it can mean "the ability of two or more systems or components
to exchange information and to use the information that has been exchanged."

NCTI believes that as the technology industry moves toward software as a
service (SaaS) and cloud computing, the potential is growing for AT software
applications that are not installed on a particular machine, but rather are
accessed through the internet from any machine.

"As ubiquitous internet access becomes a reality in schools, this trend may
empower users of specific software licenses to use that software on whatever
machine they are near, thus eliminating the need for resource rooms or
specialized AT labs," says the brief.

Another example of interoperability is when programs can share and compile
data. One example is TeachTown, a software program that provides autism
services and coordinates data and communication among parents, teachers, and
clinicians. Sharing data facilitates communication, boosts the effectiveness
of the clinical intervention, and eliminates the need for teachers or
clinicians to transfer data manually into the school's Individualized
Education Program (IEP) records, says the brief.

According to NCTI, these five trends are critical to defining current
state-of-the-art AT; however, technology developers must remember that
"keeping it simple" is really the key to successful AT tools.

NCTI hears this plea from . parents and caregivers as well. Too often, the
sophistication of the features or interface of new devices precludes easy
use by direct consumers or their parents, teachers, and friends. With more
students being served in general-education classrooms of up to 30 students,
devices need to offer as little complexity and facilitate as much
independence for the user as possible," the brief says.

"It's not just about adding new features to the stuff we already have,"
explained Tracy Gray, director of NCTI. "We must ask the question: What do
we need to solve, and how can we do that?"

The brief also underscores the importance of state-of-the-art AT training
for educators, and it lists possible uses for IDEA-based stimulus funding
for schools.

http://www.skipkimpel.com/five-key-trends-in-assistive-technology/

Regards Steve
Email:  srp at internode.on.net
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