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 Prentke’s 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 AI’s 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." ----- 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. ----- 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. ----- Improvements in speech recognition software offer a new level of accessibility to many users. ----- The No Hands Mouse from Hunter Digital lets users control and click the cursor with foot pedals. ----- DataHand's alternative to a standard keyboard incorporates finger and thumb switch modules in two hand rests.