Disabled User Products
From: Government Computer News Shopper - November, 1998 - page 25
By: John McCormick, a free-lance writer and computer consultant, has been
working with computers since the early 1960s.  


From keyboards that hear, CPUs that talk and systems that use Morse code and
braille, hundreds of hardware and software products can benefit disabled
employees.

Let's look at the three best reasons to buy adaptive computer technology that
lets disabled employees work with computers.

First, it's the right thing to do: Disabled workers should be able to work
like everyone else. 

Second, it's cost-effective: Compared with hiring, employment and training
costs, most adaptive technology is cheap and lets otherwise qualified
individuals become productive workers. 

Third, it's the law: The Americans with Disabilities Act requires employers
to make reasonable accommodations for disabled workers. 

When the first PCs came on the market, they were quickly embraced by those in
the disabled community who could afford them. The machines were seen as an
empowering technology that could be adapted to let virtually any disabled
user work and communicate with others. 

As text-to-speech, voice control and keyboard-eliminating technologies
advanced, they were quickly adopted by disabled users. 

The world seemed on the brink of a new accessibility. The disabled community
began to see the possibilities of gainful employment and all the advantages
of being able to control PCs. 

When Microsoft Windows came along, the bottom fell out of adaptive
technology. It was more difficult to build devices and software that would
let disabled workers use graphical user interfaces than it was to build
adaptive text-based computers. 

Today, more advanced technology available for Windows and even Unix have made
the playing field practically level. 

For example, speech recognition was for years a dream of those researching
artificial intelligence. But recent breakthroughs, mostly related to the
increasing processor power of desktop computers, have made speech
recognition, even continuous speech recognition, such a mainstream
application that many sub-$l,000 computers ship with the necessary hardware
and software. 

A leader in the field is Dragon Systems Inc. of Newton, MA. Dragon sells
several hardware and software speech recognition, including continuous
speech, packages for prices ranging from $100 up. Contact Dragon at
617/965-5200 or check its Web site at http://www.dragonsys.com. 

IBM Corp. sells voice recognition products under the VoiceType name, with
prices starting at about $100. Contact IBM at 914/765-1900, or visit its Web
site at http://www.ibm.com. 

Learnout & Hausple Speech Products of Burlington, MA, markets Kurzweil voice
recognition products and its own speech products. Prices start at $30. Visit
the L&H Web site at http://www.lhs.com or contact the company at 781/203-5000. 

Voice Power, from VoiSys International of Needham, MA, is a hands-free
Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer browser voice control
system. The company also sells other voice-control utilities priced from $25.
Contact VoiSys at 781/455-8642 or check its Web site at http://www.voisys.com. 

Because it just isn't very accurate, speech recognition has not been widely
accepted in the office. 

Although it isn't an acceptable alternative for unimpaired users, speech
recognition software is a major adaptive technology for those who must
otherwise use on-screen keyboards or press keys with a mouth stick. 

Head- and mouth-control devices to operate computers are available from
Prentke Romich Co. of Wooster, OH. Check Prentkes Web site at
http://www.prentrom.com for a list of its products, or contact the company at
330/262-1984. 

HandiCode, from Microsystems Software Inc. of Framingham, MA, accepts Morse
code switch closure input and controls PCs as well as produces text and
numbers. The price is $495 and up. Get details from Microsystems at
508/879-9000 or its distributor, Fine Edge Computing, in Maryland, at
301/831-9688. 

For users with speech impairments, other tools supplement or replace speech
recognition, Prentke Romich produces speech-generation and output devices for
those with speech impairments 

Microsystems' HandiChat is a screen-to-speech program that converts input
into speech. The price begins at $149. The company's HandiKey lets severe1y
disabled users select letters, words, phrases, or numbers from pre-defined
on-screen grids for speech output. Pricing begins at $395. 

Tash Inc. of Ajax, Ontario, makes and markets specialized switches for
disabled computer users who need to use a tool other than a standard keyboard
to control their computers. Prices start at $400. Contact Tash at
905/686-4129. 

Once a specialized category of products requiring a listing of its own,
optical character recognition software is so common today that it's bundled
with $50 flatbed color scanners. 

Like speech recognition software, OCR software is far from perfect. But even
a moderately good OCR package, when combined with text-to-speech software,
turns a page that is effectively blank to visually impaired workers to text
they can read. Add a scanner, and you're set. 

First Byte Inc. of Torrance, CA, produces Monologue 97, Monologue for
Windows,  and proprietary text-to-speech software used by other companies.
The price is $50 and up. Contact First Byte at 310/793-0610, or check out its
Web site at http://www.firstbyte.davd.com. 

Go to http://www.speech.su.oz.au/comp.speech/ to access the Computer Speech
Newsgroup frequently asked questions and get more information on
text-to-speech. 

The needs of blind or vision-impaired users entail different technologies. AI
Squared Inc. of Manchester, VT, is among those companies making adaptive
technology products vendors for vision-impaired users. 

AI produces screen magnification programs, including Zoom-text for DOS and
Zoom-text for Windows, which are magnification utility packages for all
applications. Prices start at $495. 

Its $149 InFocus product is a memory-resident magnification program for
MS-DOS. Get more information at AIs Web site at http://www.aisquared.com or
contact the company at 802/362-3612. 

Vision-impaired users should check out the low-priced magnification programs
for spreadsheets and word processors from Hexagon Products of Park Ridge, IL. 

BIG for 1-2-3 enlarges portions of Lotus 1-2-3, and B-POP does the same for
any MS-DOS text program. Prices start at $40. Contact Hexagon at 708/692-3355. 

The Trace Center has a site at http://www.tracecenter.org. A research and
resource center focused on technology and disability, it is part of the
Waisman Center and the Industrial Engineering Department at the University of
Wisconsin at Madison. In addition to maintaining the AbleData database
(online and on CD-ROM), the Trace Center maintains Web pages with useful
information and downloadable software. 

Its MS-DOS software tool kit at http://trace.wisc.edu/
world/computer_access/dos/dosshare.html offers several freeware and shareware
downloads.  

The site includes braille, large-text, keyboard, text-completion, word
processor and other utilities. 

The Macintosh page at
http:/trace.wisc.edu/world/computer_access/mac/macshare.html has many
cursor-enhancement and mouse utilities needed by users of its GUI
environment. Also included are magnification software, on-screen keyboards,
keyboard utilities, text-completion software and word processors. 

The same sort of utilities for Windows 3.1  are found at
http://trace.wisc.edu/world/computer_access/win/winshare.html. Check out the
Windows 95 page of utilities at
http://trace.wisc.edu/world/computer_access/win95/win95sha.html.

Less easy to find elsewhere are the Unix and X Window utilities downloadable
from http://trace.wisc.edu/world/computer_access/unix/unixshar.html. 

Vision impairment includes poor eyesight, blindness and dyslexia. To some
extent, the category includes most workers more than about 50 years old.  

Add to the category color blindness, which affects about 5 percent of the
population and 10 percent of males at any age. It's a fact most software and
Web designers ignore. 

According to The Lighthouse Inc. of NY, a vision rehabilitation organization
founded in 1906, more than 10 million Americans have low vision, and 35
million have a diminished ability to distinguish between colors. 

No special adaptive technology is needed to make some aspects of the world of
computers more accessible. Designing Web pages and software screens that are
accessible and easy to read isn't difficult, and even those without vision
impairment will thank you for your efforts. 

Here are three tips:

1. Don't use color as the sole method of conveying information. 

2. Use high-contrast, or dark-light, color combinations for text and
   background. It's with good reason that for centuries black type on white
   paper has been a successful combination. 

3. In the same vein, keep the background for text simple. Digital watermarks
   or photos behind text may be graphically pleasing, but they do nothing to
   enhance the mission of the page and can easily scuttle it. 

It is ironic that while many disabled people and those concerned with
computers and accessibility have decried the ubiquity of Windows and other
GUIs, Microsoft Corp. is at the forefront of the battle to make computers
more accessible. Check out the main Microsoft Web page for enabling
technology at http://www.microsoft.com/enable/.

Access Pack for Windows is a free downloadable utility package, which has
several useful tools based on three keyboard drivers and a new mouse driver
that can be used to replace those that ship with Windows. 

With StickyKeys, users need not press pairs of keys simultaneously. 

For Alt-F1, for example, the first of the pair sticks until the second is
pressed.

SlowKeys makes the computer ignore accidentally pressed keys; instead, it
recognizes only keys that are held down for a user-selectable length of time. 

RepeatKeys allows a much greater range of settings for the period before a
depressed key starts repeating its character.  

MouseKeys lets users substitute keyboard operations for all mouse movements. 

ToggleKeys uses audio signals to indicate if Caps Lock, Num Lock and Scroll
Lock keys are activated. 

The Public Broadcasting Corp. and WGBH-TV National Center on Accessible Media
provide information about accessible Web design and a model accessible Web
site at http://www.boston.com/wgbh/pages/ncam/ncamhome.html. 

WebAble has a directory of accessibility resources at
http://yuri.org/webable/index.html. 

A primary resource is the AbleData database at http://www.abledata.com/. The
database is sponsored by the National Institute on Disability and
Rehabilitation Research's Education Department. The database holds more than
24,000 products, many of which have to do with office environments and
computers. 

Some people may be disabled in away that may not require special computer
adaptive technology. For example, someone may be too weak to commute to work
or may need special medical equipment at hand for emergencies. For such
workers, putting in a full work week may not be feasible in an office but
would be from home. 

Permission to telecommute is all they need. For them, the most important
enabling technology is a change in management's mind-set. 

The Job Accommodation Network at http://janweb.icdi.wvu.edu/ is a service of
the President's Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities.  

Visit http://janweb.icdi.wvu.edu/english/pubs/AccommodationIdeaList.html for
an extensive list of suggestions on how to accommodate various disabilities. 

GCN recognizes the needs of disabled workers; it co-sponsored my book,
"Computers and the Americans with Disabilities Act: A Manager's Guide."  

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Help IT help your users

1. Look sharp. If you run Microsoft Win9x or Windows NT, click on My
   Computer, choose Accessibility Options, and select Display, then choose
   the high contrast option. This lets Windows alter the colors and fonts of
   any Web page or software designed to recognize this feature. 

2. Plain is best. Keep the background behind text simple and subdued. Intense
   colors and splashy graphics ensure that many people won't be able to read
   your text. 

3. Color it readable. Check http://www.lighthouse.org/1lh32a.html for the
   skinny on what color combinations are easiest on the eyes. 

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Signs for Computer Terminology, by Steven L. Jamison, illustrates signs for
more than 600 commonly used computer terms. Published by the National
Association of the Deaf of Silver Spring, MD, the book costs $12.95. 

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Improvements in speech recognition software offer a new level of
accessibility to many users. 

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The No Hands Mouse from Hunter Digital lets users control and click the
cursor with foot pedals. 

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DataHand's alternative to a standard keyboard incorporates finger and thumb
switch modules in two hand rests. 

