The Mind Switch Notes

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Who would dare accuse the folks with all the money, all the guns, and all the power?
The Rich Stand Accused
By Louis-Gilles Francoeur
Le Devoir
Saturday 06 January and Sunday 07 January 2007
Capitalism is the source of social and environmental crises.
What do global warming, pollution of the atmosphere, streams, rivers and oceans, the exhaustion of natural resources, the accelerated extinctions of species, deforestation, the liberation of GMO into the environment, and -
coming soon - the infinitely small and practically undetectable pollution of
nano-materials have in common? Capitalism and the oligarchy that profits from it, as first cause, answers Hervé Kempf in a bombshell book published in Paris
by éditions du Seuil.
A journalist who specializes in the environment for Le Monde, Hervé Kempf has taken his work to the four corners of the planet and frequented - as is the privilege of an environmental chronicler - the cream of the scientific community, "people who tend to be rather calm and steady." Yet, from these contacts and the issues patiently compiled for the newspaper where he works, he retains two observations, he writes at the outset of Comment les riches détruisent la planète [How the Rich Destroy the Planet], which will be available in Québec February 6th.
First, he explained in a telephone interview yesterday, the planet's ecological situation is worsening at a rate that neutralizes all the efforts of millions of citizens and ecological militants, to the point that the planet is in danger of crossing a threshold of irreversibility "within the next 10 years," he believes,
on the basis of the speed at which negative outcomes are piling up.
The second observation of this attempt to provide a veritably comprehensive explanation of the environmental crisis is that "the social system that presently governs human society - capitalism - blindly, doggedly rejects the changes necessary if we want to preserve the dignity and promise of human existence."
In the same way that the different aspects of the global environmental crisis react with more and more synergy - warming accelerates the rate of species extinction, as use of fossil fuel gives rise to pollution, & consumption to the exhaustion of resources - the planetary ecological and social crises
are two mutually bound-up facets of the same problem.
"We cannot understand the simultaneity of the ecological and social crises
if we do not analyze them as two facets of the same disaster. This disaster derives from a system piloted by a dominant social stratum that today has
no drive but greed, no ideal but conservatism, no dream but technology.
This predatory oligarchy is the principal agent of the global crisis," writes Kempf.

"The present form of capitalism," he adds in an interview, "has lost its former historic ends, that is to say the creation of wealth and innovation, because it has become a financial capitalism, disparaged even by capitalist economists. This capitalism, which destroys jobs by rationalizations, new technologies and globalizations, overall and everywhere increases the disparities between rich and poor within each country and between different countries," the journalist observes.
This oligarchy he targets is not satisfied with blindly consuming and wasting the planet's material resources with its big cars, its airplane trips,
its unbridled consumption of living products, its uselessly vast houses, its unrestrained energy wastage. It has also, adds Hervé Kempf, spawned a model of hyper-consumption that the lower and especially the middle classes now attempt to imitate, just as developing countries try to imitate Western countries - even though, whether instinctively or rationally, everyone clearly knows that "this ideology of waste" and its drain on planetary resources will inevitably come to an abrupt end.
This course places before the human species the unprecedented fact that it has reached or soon will reach the planet's limits, which could, through feedback effects, threaten the species' own existence. But this course is all
the more difficult to arrest, Hervé Kempf deems, because it depends on
a semi-authoritarian regime ever more institutionalized at the planetary level. It even depends, he says, on crises like that of September 11 in order to appreciably reduce those human rights that had been acquired through elevated struggle and to neutralize, even cause to disappear, those democratic mechanisms that allow free public debate on the choice of plans, the social choices that the workings of the economy repeatedly raise.
Hervé Kempf rejects all accusations of attempting to take the planetary ecological debate from green to red.
"I am no Marxist," he says, "and have never been, because that ideology does not respect human rights. But the Marxists do not have a monopoly over the social debate and we cannot, all the same, close our eyes to the documented, measured phenomena right in front of us. I note the existence of two crises, one ecological, the other social. And I observe that they act in synergy. I observe that a minority of people benefit from them. And I draw conclusions from these observations."
But he also observes that a large part of the European Left has not seen
the depth of the links between the two problems, just as many ecologists -
who restrict themselves to an environmental approach - miss half the problem,
if not its first cause.
"If you want to be an ecologist," he writes, condemningly, "you have to stop being half-witted," for "the social given remains ecology's blind spot" as long
as no one dares analyze it from the angle of power, domination and wealth relationships.
"We must," he writes, "get past this hiatus. Understand that the ecological crisis and social crisis are two facets of the same disaster. And that this disaster is set in motion by a system of power that has no other end than the maintenance of the ruling classes' privileges."
Although he does not address the impact of unchecked demography on the decline of the planet's "biological services" in his essay, Hervé Kempf immediately acknowledges that this factor certainly has an impact that is greater overall than any hyper-consumption by this oligarchy, composed of several hundred thousand millionaires and billionaires who control the bulk of income
and of financial capital. However, he explains, it's this oligarchy that creates
an unsustainable model for the planet, the indirect impact of which on other social groups exceeds its direct consumption. "And," he says dryly, "not all humans have the same impact on the planet at birth: a Westerner carries more weight in the planet's fate than a baby from Niger or from India."
It's to put an end to this ostentatious consumption that he advocates radical control of wealth through "a ceiling on maximum salaries and on the accumulation of wealth," a sort of matching piece for the minimum wage, but
on the upper side.
"Everyone," Kempf comments, "knows that China will never be able to reach a level of consumption per inhabitant comparable to that of the Americans, with two cars per family, three televisions, four computers and cell phones, a house three times too big for
its inhabitants, which generates energy consumption that would be sufficient to the needs of ten, even twenty people on other continents." The environmental chronicler proposes that a reduction of its consumption be imposed on this oligarchy that has globalized poverty, so that it no longer feeds this unsustainable dream, which numbs the critical faculties of the entire planet to the point that it closes its eyes to the wall into which it is careening full speed ahead.
And the reporter, known for his rigor and level-headedness, nevertheless concludes: "It is still necessary for ecological concerns to be based on a radical political analysis of present relationships of domination. We will not be able to reduce global material consumption if the powerful are not brought down and if inequality is not combated. To the ecological principle so useful at the dawning of awareness - "Think globally, act locally" - we must add the principle that the present situation imposes: "Consume less, share better."
Ecologists, he adds, have not often conducted an inquiry into the "ecological misery" that parks the poor next to industrial neighborhoods, polluted and at risk, next to highways or noisy activities, in the most insalubrious houses and
in sectors generally the least well-served by public services, including public transportation. It is wrong, he says, to act as though the economic system must grow more to bring these people out of poverty or to allow more poor people to attain greater wealth. The economic system works in the other direction, by monopolizing wealth and power at the expense of those who have the least,
and of the middle classes that dream - ever more vainly - of hoisting themselves into the cocoon of the present financial oligarchy, Kempf maintains.
That's why, he says, we must "bring down the rich" rather than pull up the poor, in order to begin to respect the thresholds of irreversible deterioration
of the planet's resources.
He takes aim, moreover, at the concept of sustainable development and the alibi it now constitutes for governments and companies that use it to justify other drains on resources in the name of this new rationale that is supposedly harmless for the planet. Sustainable development, he writes, has become "a semantic weapon to remove the dirty word, 'ecology.' Moreover, is there any
need to still develop France, Germany, or the United States? The concept has meaning, he concluded in an interview yesterday, but only in developing countries, because it can help them to avoid a development as brutal and lawless as the one we have effected in the West. But in the West, he says,
the first of our environmental responsibilities "consists of reducing our consumption of material goods" to attain a level of well-being based rather
on values, knowledge, in sum on immaterial, but nonetheless very real, riches.
--------
More information about H. Kempf's work is available at www.reporterre.net.

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http://www.science.uts.edu.au/news/2003/May/27.html Mindswitch: finalist in International Innovation Award


A radical new technology, dubbed 'Mindswitch', has been developed by Professor Ashley Craig at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) is one of eleven finalist entries in the Third Saatchi & Saatchi Innovation in Communication Award, that was announced in New York on Tuesday 27 May. The Mindswitch was the only Australian finalist and in a genuine case of mind over matter, it is expected to offer a new type of mobility for people who have suffered damage to their central nervous system or spinal cord. It allows them to activate and control electrical devices with the blink of an eye, over a distance of 300 metres. Professor Craig has been engaged in brain mapping for a number of years. During trials, he has seen each new Mind Switch prototype perform at a higher level. "Our latest prototype is proving extremely reliable with severely disabled people who are not able to use even their hands. Using the Mind Switch, most participants were able to turn a TV on and off, change channels and adjust volume - more than 90 percent of the time within one to three seconds," says Professor Craig. The Mind Switch consists of a small cap that contains electrodes to pick up the brain’s natural activity through the scalp. It is activated by a burst in alpha brainwaves when a person closes their eyes. A signal is then transmitted via a computer to domestic power points around a house. "We are now at a stage where we can concentrate on fine tuning the quality of the Mind Switch and making it as user-friendly as possible. One of the spin-offs of our research is that we are learning more and more about brainwave activity and the variety of alpha levels people transmit under different conditions," says Professor Craig. The Mindswitch was one of eleven finalists in the biennial Saatchi & Saatchi Innovation in Communication Award. Finalists came from Portugal, Ireland, the UK and USA and include ideas as diverse as they are inspired. Some are deceptively simple, but all are united in their clever use of technology to potentially benefit humanity. The winner was Professor Dave Irvine-Halliday, an electrical engineer from the University of Calgary, Canada, is the inventor of a technology that finally makes cheap, durable, low-power lighting a possiblity for homes in the developing world. Irvine-Halliday’s system combines white light emitting diodes, similar to the sort found in LED alarm clocks, into a multi-diode lamp which can be powered by a pedal generator. Able to light an entire rural village with less energy than a conventional 100-watt bulb, it is at once efficient, affordable, and environmentally benign. A second Award, The Edward de Bono Medal for Thinking was awarded to inventor Patrick Peebles, for his revolutionary flying machine – the FanWing. The Award's convenor, Saatchi & Saatchi Worldwide Creative Director, Bob Isherwood, said that for this year's Award a whole new and exciting class of innovation emerged. "What we are seeing is a trend towards ideas that redefine what is possible in underdeveloped countries. Some of the entries, while not totally original on a purely technical basis, are still far outside the realm of what is practically being done today. And more importantly, they provide workable solutions to important global problems that many, many others have overlooked." The judging panel, lateral thinking pioneer Edward de Bono, maverick musician David Byrne, supercomputer inventor Danny Hillis, SONY executive VP Dr Kenji Kitatani, cyberguru John Maeda, NASA veteran Dr Story Musgrave and opera, film and theatre director Julie Taymor announced their decision at an event in New York on Tuesday May 27th. For more information on Mindswitch contact: Mary Mulcahy ph + 61 2 9514 2249, Mary.Mulcahy@uts.edu.au Saatchi and Saatchi Contact : Simone Ellis simone@saatchiny.com Tel +1 212 463 2192 or +64 4 4999 111 Back to news archive http://www.science.uts.edu.au/news/2003/May/27.html

London exhibition for UTS Mind Switch
http://www.uts.edu.au/new/archives/2001/March/13.html

Demonstrating the Mind Switch
UTS-developed Mind Switch technology, which allows people to operate electrical equipment with the blink of an eye, is being showcased at London’s Science Museum.

Professor Ashley Craig, Associate Professor Les Kirkup and Dr Yvonne Tran from the Faculty of Science are in London to demonstrate the Mind Switch as part of the museum’s Brain Awareness Week activities.

Professor Craig said the London invitation was a special honour for the UTS researchers and indicated the international recognition the Mind Switch work has achieved.

The Mind Switch allows people to activate and control electrical devices simply by closing their eyes. The key is a burst of alpha brainwaves emitted as the eyes are closed, which the UTS researchers found could be distinguished from other brain activity and isolated.

The UTS researchers, who are working towards commercialisation of the technology, have recently completed successful trials of the Mind Switch with 10 severely disabled people.

Professor Craig said the latest prototype of the Mind Switch Environmental Control Unit, or ECU, had been 90 per cent reliable in the trials, which were conducted in the homes of people who have suffered quadriplegia through accident or disease.

"We asked participants to use the ECU to control their television: turn it on and off, change channels and adjust the volume," Professor Craig said. "Most could activate the switch in one to three seconds more than 90 per cent of the time."

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http://www.raven1.net/m_switch.htm
Original link:
http://www.phys.uts.edu.au/~asearle/mind_switch/m_switch.html

OVERVIEW
The Mind Switch refers to the technology that has been developed which allows a person to turn on and off an electrical appliance, such as a desk lamp or TV in 2-3 seconds using EEG signals, without training. Proportional control, such as turning up or down the volume of a radio is also possible with the technology. This research is being carried at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS).

BACKGROUND - General
Early in 1994 while studying the response of the brain to environmental factors Professor Ashley Craig and Mr Paul McIsaac of the Department of Health Sciences at UTS, noticed an effect which appears to be common among all persons. That effect is an increase in a particular brain signal when a person closes his/her eyes for more than one second. The important question that Ashley and Paul then asked was could this effect be used to do something useful?, ie - could the control of the brain signal be used, in turn, to control something else? At this stage Ashley contacted Professor Tony Moon, the Dean of Science at UTS, to find out if anyone could help answer the technical questions and design a system that might exploit the apparent change in the signal level when a person closes his/her eyes. Professor Moon introduced Ashley to Assoc Prof Les Kirkup who is a associate professor in the department of Applied Physics at UTS, who has experience in developing electronics and instrumentation. It was thought he could offer important input to the project. He was initially sceptical that signals as small as those that are present on the scalp, (where electrodes are placed to pick up brain activity) could be detected reliably and analysed sufficiently quickly to allow activation of an external device, such as a lamp or TV. The data that had been gathered on signal levels with eyes open and eyes closed showed that a significant increase occurred in the 8-13Hz part of the 'brain spectrum' commonly referred to as the 'alpha' region. Les built a detection, discrimination and analysis system based on Ashley and Paul's data and, much to his surprise at least, the first person (Lucy) connected to the system showed the capability of operating a switch which could control an electrical appliance.

BACKGROUND - Technical
Serious work done on brain signals began with Berger in 1929 [Berger 1967]. Since that time the acquisition and analysis of brain signals, referred to as Electroencephalography (EEG) has advanced to such a state that EEG is regularly used to assist in the diagnosis of schizophrenia, epilepsy and brain tumours. [Geddes and Baker, 1989]. EEG has also been used in biofeedback studies in which subjects may learn to modify their EEG signals in response to visual representation of their EEG signals. This control usually take weeks or months to learn and is not highly reliable. The system we have developed does NOT rely on any learned skill by an individual. It simply requires a person to close his/her eyes for more than 1 second to effect sufficient change in the signals levels to allow for the reliable operation of a switch. It turns out that it has been known for many years that increase in signal level occur upon eye closure, but this is the first example (to our knowledge) of the recognition of its potential and the exploitation of the effect. The system used to detect the change in signals consists of amplifiers, filters and other signal processing elements (full details are still classified at the moment!). As there are other sources which can generate signals which can interfere with brain signals (and hence cause intermittent switching on and off of appliances) we have developed a noise suppression system which eliminates the effect of those noise sources. This feature is very important as we are currently developing the technology for disabled persons (we have a three year grant from the Motor Accident Authority of New South Wales, MAA) and reliability is a major issue. The funding from MAA has allowed us to appoint Mr Andrew Searle who has become a key figure in the technical developments regarding the Mind Switch. In addition Mr Perez Moses is developing new noise suppression techniques to be applied in this work.

Berger, H. 1967. On the electroencephalogram of man (trans. by P. Gloor).EEG Clin. Neurophysiol., Suppl. 28:1-350
Geddes, L. A. and Baker, L. E. 1989. Principles of applied biomedical instrumentation 3rd ed. (Wiley, New York): pp726-727

Les Kirkup demonstrates the Mind Switch by controlling a slot car set

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This Page maintained by Andrew Searle. Any comments or feedback welcome.
The Mind SwitchUsing brain signals for rapid and reliable on-off control of appliances without training.
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http://www.comp.dit.ie/dgordon/Lectures/Enabling_Tech02/Introduction/include.htm

Yahoo! Reference: American Heritage® Dictionary

ramp

NOUN:

1. An inclined surface or roadway connecting different levels.

2. A mobile staircase by which passengers board and leave an aircraft.

3. A concave bend of a handrail where a sharp change in level or direction occurs, as at a stair landing.

ETYMOLOGY:

French rampe, from ramper, to slope, rise up, from Old French.

Page Contents

1. What is Assistive Technology (AT)?

2. Terminology

3. Policies and Organisations

4. Frameworks

5. Research Journals

6. Basic System to support add-on adaptations

7. Accessible Web Design

8. Assistive Software/Hardware Technology

1. What is Assistive Technology (AT)?

Any item, piece of equipment, or product system, whether acquired commercially or off the shelf, modified or cutomized, that increases, maintains or improves functional capabilities of individuals with disabilities

(U.S.Technology-Related Assistance of Individuals with Disabilities Act, 1998)

Assistive Technology (AT) refers to any device or system that helps to improve the functional capacity of people with disabilities. AT can now make it possible for people with disabilities to do more for themselves, to erform some of the functions that were previously difficult or impossible because of impairment.

AT has been with us from the time early man used a branch of a tree as a makeshift crutch. The last century saw the beginning of what we would have called "high tech" applications such as spectacles, hearing aids, Braille printers. There seems to be no limit to the possibilities and devices that can control computers by thought processes or send messages from the eye.

Assistive technology (AT) is a very broad field and may range from the very simple to the very complex. For the sake of description, it may be divided into high, medium and low-tech categories:

"low-tech" - non-electronic devices, such as widened pencil grips, velcro fasteners, or book holders.
"medium-tech" devices are more complicated but are used by those with some degree of independent functioning. e.g. adaptive computer peripherals - tracker balls, joy sticks, keyboards, etc.
"high-tech" devices are more sophisticated communication and environmental control systems. Considerable specialist support and training is necessary.

Assistive technology is sometimes referred to as "work-around" technology. The "fit" of technology solutions with the individual's circumstances must be carefully judged - low technology solutions are often more effective and easily integrated into a person's lifestyle.

What areas might be improved with technology?

Communication
Participation
Productivity
Mobility
Environmental Control
Academic Outcomes

Link to Introduction to classification of impairments and learning difficulties and policy (Powerpoint presentation 90K)

2. Terminology

The label "handicapped" tended to define the person as a whole and such people were viewed as a different element of society, often being excluded and separately educated. The emerging model for disability sees it as a specific attribute and not defining the person as a whole. The term "impairment" is often preferred, as it suggests the individual being impaired from normal functioning because of factors outside of the person, rather than within.

There is a plethora of terms and acronyms employed by experts in the fields of Technology and Special Needs. It is useful to become acquainted with some of the most commonly used.

Acronyms and Abbreviations

AAC: Augmentative and Alternative Communication

AT: Assistive Technology

ECU: Environmental Control Units

IDEA: Individuals with Disabilities Education Act

IEP: Individual Education Programme

MDT: Multi-Disciplinary Team

OCR: Optical Character Recognition - a type of software used in scanners. Printed material, when scanned, is converted into text in a word processing programme.

OT: Occupational Therapist or Therapy

POW: Powered Mobility

MPT: Matching Person and Technology

SEN: Special Educational Needs

SLT: Speech and Language Theapist

VR: Voice Recognition

3. Policies and Organisations

The Centre for Research in IT and Education (CRITE) conducted a detailed study on "Best Practice in Innovation in Learning" for the Information Society Commission (ISC).A small part of the study investigated the area of "Accessibility".

http://www.crite.net/Conferences/2000/isc1/Accresource.html

Sweden

CERTEC

http://www.certec.lth.se/english/

This is a devision of Rehabilitation Engineering Research, Department of Design at Lund University, Sweden. It provides research and courses to contribute to improve opportunities for people with disabilities by developing more usable technical devices, new design consepts and new individual metods of learning and searching. A rich resource of case studies, research papers, publications and strong theories and methods behind the research.

Australia

Australian Human Rights & Equal Opportunity Commission

http://www.hreoc.gov.au/disability_rights/standards/standards.html

The Disability Discrimination Act 1992 requires equal access on the WWW for people with a disability in employment, education, provision of services, banking, entertainment, public transport, activities of voluntary associations.

Canada

EnableLink

http://enablelink.org/

This web site links people with disabilities to a world of resources both on a national and international scale. The site also has a search engine for over 5,000 Organisations in Canada that deal with disabilities.

European Disability Forum (EDF)

http://www.edf-feph.org

The EDF's activities are mainly run to policy actions based on the EU agenda, to establish contacts with EU Institutions, International and European Organisations. It campaigns to dismantle the barriers that deny disabled people equal opportunities. It tackles universal access in the following ares:

Information society,
Standardisation, *
Barrier-free Europe,
Transport.

* Standardisation - New technology needs to be appropriately designed for disabled people. It reduces the need for human support and empowers disabled people by reducing dependency on others.

Assistive teachnology can enable a disabled person to be active in the labour market. Disabled people who can be economically active and participate in the workforce are the most obvious benefit from ensuring accessible product standards.

European Agency for Development in Special Needs Education

http://www.european-agency.org

This body aims to collect and process information and knowledge that is available in individual countries and make them available to other countries that may need them. The information is about special needs in 18 participating countries as well as innovative measures, research and development at the national and European levels.

http://www.youreable.com

Information service for shopping, news items on people woth disabilities, forums and discussions.

British Educational and Communications agency (BECTa)

http://www.becta.org.uk/inclusion/index.html

The Inclusion and Special Needs Section of this web site investigates a series of issues on SEN and ICT in schools, research projects, information sheets on different areas of SEN and impairments. The site also has an extensive directory of organisations that can provide information to teachers, parents and students on the implementation of AT.

Ireland

Department of Education and Science

Details of the IT2000 Report also a short list of reports on special needs.

http://www.irlgov.ie/educ/generalpolicy/generalpolicy.htm

"Special Needs was one of my immediate priorities when I became Minister for Education and Science. I believe that all pupils with identified special educational needs should have entitlement to quality educational services appropriate to their needs and abilities."

Minister of Education for Education and Science, Dr Woods

National Disability Authority IT Accessibility Guidelines

http://accessit.nda.ie/index.html

National Centre for Technology in Education (NCTE)

23 School Integration Projects (SIPs) have been set up for special needs. These Projects were set up in Special Schools around the country as well as Learning Support in mainstream schools. Details of these Projects are on the NCTE website under the SIP under current projects. These projects are intended to help determine models of good practice for the use of ICT across the Irish education system.

http://www.ncte.ie/

Scoilnet.ie

The Special Needs section provides information for teachers, parents and students on categories of SEN, ICT advise for students with specific impairments e.g. autism, dyspraxia, Emotional/Behavioural Disorders, guidelines on how to evaluate software and some case studies of individual children with specific imparments and ICT solutions.

The Education Act (1998)

The Act contains a grievance procedure, which provides a mechanism for parents to raise grievances about a lack of support services. The school may be required to "take appropriate remedial action" as a consequence of a substantiated grievance.

The Equal Status Act (2000)

This Act may have more relevance to the provision of AT as it prohibits educational establishments from directly or indirectly discriminating in elation to access and participation.

IATSE (Irish Association for Teachers in Special Education)

http://www.iol.ie/~iatse

IATSE is an association of and for teachers and educators of pupils with special educational needs in Ireland. It aims to spread knowledge among all teachers involoved in special education and to promote and encourage research in this area.

ILSA (Irish Learning Support Association)

http://www.ilsa.ie

The ILSA is a teacher organisation to facilitate the continious improvement to the service provided to children with learning disabilities, so that these children have the access to the professional expertise of Learning Support Teachers and other revelant serv ices.

CRC (Central Remedial Clinic)

http://www.crc.ie

DAI (Dyslexia Association of Ireland)

http://gofree.indigo.ie/~acld

The DAI is an organisation which promotes awareness of specific learning disability (dyslexia) and to serve the needs of people with this difficulty.

Enable Ireland

http://www.enableireland.ie

Enable Ireland is the country's largest provider of services to people with physical dissabilities and their families.

National Council for the Blind of Ireland

http://www.ncbi.ie

The council seeks to encourage the economic, social and intellectual indepedence of members through the provision of a range of services such a mobility, daily living skills, library services, telephony skills and rehabilitation training.

MDI (Muscular Dystrophy Ireland)

http://www.mdi.ie/

MDI provides support to persons with neuromuscular conditions and their families through the provision of a range of support services.

4. Frameworks

Certain factors have to be considered when deciding to implement assistive technology. Assessment and decision-making should be as closely linked as possible to the context in which the individual will use the technology.

The Enabletech.ie Assistive Technology website suggests 9 factors that may be taken into consideration. These have been slightly changed

The individual - reaction to technology, practical achievements,
Matching Person and Technology,*
Home or work circumstances -suitable location, extending the use of the AT at home and outside,
Cognitive Ability - Is the AT within the cognitive ability of the person. Combination of physical, sensory and cognitive difficulties could be involved.
Ergonomics - posture, seating. add-ons, foot-rests, arm supports, etc.
Inclusive Curriculum - Determine the educational goals. Look at exam procedures for pupils with disabilities. e.g. dyslexia (SLD),
Work/School/Community planning and Individual Education Plans,
Help - Assistants, technical help will be sought not just at the outset but throughout usage,
Avoiding abandonment - about 30% of AT is abandoned in the first 3 months of use. Keep expectations realistic.

Matching Person and Technology (MPT) *

http://members.aol.com/JSchererer/MPT.html

The MPT Model contains a series of instruments designed for technology providers concerned with the match of person and technology. Three components remain the same in all situations:

The characteristics of the environment in which the technology and user interact,
The characteristics of the Person who will use it,
The characteristics of the Technology itself.

NCIP (National Center to Improve Practice in Special Education Through Technology, Media and Materials

http://www2.edc.org./NCIP/tour/toc.htm

This research center promotes language and literacy among young students with developmental disabilities in early childhood classrooms.

Four key elements of effective practice are proposed:

engineer the classroom environment to optimise access to learning,
modify the instructional strategies, materials and tools to meet individual needs,
integrate the curriculum through theme-based learning,
embed assessment in all classroom activities.

Other Factors to Consider

Epilepsy - Computers can adversely affect a very small proportion of people with photo-sensitive epilepsy.

Spina Bifida - Some individuals may have associated perceptual or other hidden difficulties that are not immediately apparent, but may represent a learning difficulty for the individual.

Use of AT for children in hospital or irregular attendance. Schools in hospitals are now experimenting with the use of AT for children.

5. Research Journals

Inclusive Technology the Special Needs people

http://www.inclusive.co.uk.infosite/articles.shtml

NASEN

http://www.nasen.uk.com/ejournal/

Journal of Special Education Technology

http://www.isc.rit.edu/~easi/itd.html

AT Assistive Technology Journal

http://www.atnet.org/news/

Special Education Technology Practice

http://www.setp.net

Closing the Gap

http://www.closingthegap.com/index.html

Assitive Technology Database

http://www.abledata.com

6. Basic System to support add-on adaptations

An adequate configuration to use the majority of built-in adaptations would be 16 MB of RAM and 1 to 2 GB of hard disk space. 32 MB would be considered substantial and would provide the memory necessary to run the majority of add-on adaptations.

A rule of thumb is to purchase twice as much memory as you need to run 90% of your software. If 90% of the instructional software and add-on adaptations require 16 MB of RAM, purchase computers with at least double that amount.

7. Accessible Web Design

Antoine Ó Raiftéirí (Anthony Raftery)

Antoine Ó Raiftéirí was born on 30th March 1779, in Kiltimagh, Co. Mayo. He was the son of a weaver and had many brothers and sisters. An outbreak of smallbox when he was five years of age resulted in him being left blind and the loss of all of his siblings. Legend says that when he was still a young man, Raftery helped some fairies in distress and was granted a boon, the gift of poetry.

He became a wandering bard, in the Celtic druidic tradition, and is regarded by many as the last, great Irish bard (Bono, notwithstanding ;-). He wandered from Mayo to Sligo to Galway, going from town to town, singing songs and playing the violin, collecting whatever money people could spare in those hard times. He often composed poems or songs as he was singing them and was loved by most for his quick wit and acerbic humour.

Picture of Irish Five Punt Note

Information & Applications

Accessible Web Authoring GuideLines

7.1. Put in a Table of Contents

7.2. Seperate Links

7.3. Avoid unordered Lists

7.4. Include ALT text with images

7.5. Use tables wisely

7.6. Bits and Bobs

7.1. Put in a table of contents

At the top of each page, put in a table of contents that lists the titles of the main sections available in the page, this gives the visually impaired reader an overview of the page, just as sighted reader would scroll up and down the page to get an overview of the contents.

7.2. Seperate Links

Screen readers sometimes use a different voice or a different tone of voice for links, but if the link are one beside another, e.g.

link 1 link 2 link 3

then it will be difficult for the listener to distinguish between different links, a better approach is to either place the links on seperate lines, or seperate them using a vertical bar, i.e.

link 1 link 2 link 3

or with square brackets, i.e.

[ link 1 ][ link 2 ][ link 3 ]

7.3. Avoid Unordered Lists

Unordered lists (ones with bulletpoints) can be confusing for a number of reasons for screenreaders, but most importantly, if there are sub-items in a list most readers will be unable to distinguish sub-items from main list items, this is why it is much kinder to use numbered lists.

List Item
List Item
- Sub-List Item
- Sub-List Item
List Item

List Item
List Item
1. Sub-List Item
2. Sub-List Item
List Item

7.4. Include ALT Text with images

Images on a screen cannot be read or understood by screen reader, so the best thing you can do is provide a text explaination using the ALT option of the IMG tag. To see an example, place the pointer over the image below.

Rusty : The Wonder Dog

Similarly, for audio and video links, a text description of the they are about and the approximate sizes of the files should be included. e.g.

The Sound of Slience (1.22Mb)

Clip from "Gone with the Wind" (34Mb)

7.5. Use Tables Wisely

Screenreaders have to browse web-pages sequentially, thus when they encounter tables they are required to make decisions as to how they are going to read the tables. In the example below we have a table with two cells, one beside the other, the reader must decide does it read it a line at a time or a cell at a time :

This is the left side

This is the right side

Does it read "This is the This is the left side right side" or "This is the left side This is the right side" ?

if we consider the more complex case of a two-dimensional table, does it read it a line at a time or a row at a time or a column at a time :

This is the top left	This is the top right
This is the bottom left	This is the bottom right

Does it read "This is the This is the top left top right This is the This is the bottom left bottom right" or "This is the top left This is the top right This is the bottom left This is the bottom right " or "This is the top left This is the bottom left This is the top right This is the bottom right "?

Given this sort of conflict and that different readers behave differently, the best thing to do is USE TABLES WISELY and if the table has a header, identify it using the CAPTION option in the TABLE tag.

7.6. Bits and Bobs

7.6.1 Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)

Cascading Style Sheets allow you to separate the appearance of web pages from the content of web pages, so the appearance can be beautiful, and it can still be read easily by a screen reader. Executive summary : God Bless CSS.

7.6.2 Fonts / Style / Size

Since most readers ignore text fonts, styes and sizes, try to avoid using fonts, styles (e.g. italics) or text size to emphasise a particular word or a particular point, do it by rephrasing the sentence.

7.6.3 Colour Combinations

Try to keep colour of text and background colours sufficiently different so that text is clearly readable, also try to avoid red-green mixes to help out colour blind people.

Explore, Test & Actively Engage with the Information

The following applet allows you to change both the colour of your text and the background colour of the web page, play around with it and fine combinations that are pleasing to the eye and ones that are not so nice.

Free JavaScripts provided
by The JavaScript Source

Click on the black box below, it will lead you to a web-page with two quotes on it, figure out two ways of reading what the quotes say (I can think of at least five ways of doing it).

Black Box

9. Assistive Software/Hardware Technology

Browsers (Speech Enabled)

There are a number of speech enabled browsers available on the web :

Simply Web 2000

The Simply Web 2000 Speech Enabled Browser

http://www.econointl.com/sw/

The IBM® Home Page Reader (30-day trial)

http://www-3.ibm.com/able/hprtrial3.html

J.A.W.S.

The JAWS (Job Access With Speech) Screen Reader

http://www.synapseadaptive.com/henter2/JAWS1.htm

Browsers (Text-only)

Lynx Text Browser

The LYNX Browser

http://lynx.browser.org/

Screen Magnifiers

The Screen Magnifiers Homepage

http://www.magnifiers.org/

Fatbits Magnifier

The Fatbits Magnifier is a simply magnifier that magnifies the region of the screen around the pointer.

http://www.digitalmantra.com/download.html

The Lupa Magnifier

The Lupa Magnifier

http://www.magnifiers.org/cgi-bin/links/jump.cgi?ID=83

Look at the black box above again, all of the pixels in the picture are black, except for one, which is dark purple, can you find it ?

__________________________________________________________________________

Accessibility

Microsoft Accessibility "Technology for Everyone"

http://www.microsoft.com/enable

This web site gives details on built-in accessibility features in Microsoft products that can be adjusted to meet the needs and preferences of individuals. Information is also provided on the "visually impaired", "hearing impaired", "mobility impairments", and "cognitive impairments".

Computer Keyboards - Ergonomic, Keyguards, Expanded

A Keyboard Guard

Mouses. Mice - Tracker Balls, Foot mouse, Head Mouse, Force-feedback Mouse

Force Feedback mouse

Force Feedback with "Gravity well"

Force Feedback results graph

Other Important Tools:

Voice Recognition

Touch Screens

Eye Tracking

Eye Tracking

Some techniques ;

Reflected Light

Five tracking techniques use light (mainly infrared light) reflected by the eye (on the cornea or further in in the eye): limbus tracking, pupil tracking, corneal and pupil reflection relationship, corneal reflection and eye image using an artificial neural network and Purkinje image tracking.
Electric Skin Potential

The electro-oculography tracking technique is based on the fact that there exists an electrostatic field that rotates along with the eye. By recording quite small differences in the skin potential around the eye, the position of the eye can be detected; since this is done with electrodes placed on the skin around the eye, this technique does not require a clear view of the eye, which results in a large dynamic range of approximately ±70°
Contact Lenses

By making the user wear a special contact lens, it is possible to make quite accurate recordings of the direction of gaze. Two lens techniques exist: by engraving one or more plane mirror surfaces on the lens, reflections of light beams can be used to calculate the position of the eye. And by implanting a tiny induction coil into the lens, the exact positioning of the lens can be recorded through the use of high-frequency electro-magnetic fields placed around the user's head.

Stephen Hawking - "Before the operation, my speech had been getting more slurred, so that only a few people who knew me well, could understand me. But at least I could communicate. I wrote scientific papers by dictating to a secretary, and I gave seminars through an interpreter, who repeated my words more clearly. However, the tracheotomy operation removed my ability to speak altogether. For a time, the only way I could communicate was to spell out words letter by letter, by raising my eyebrows when someone pointed to the right letter on a spelling card. It is pretty difficult to carry on a conversation like that, let alone write a scientific paper. However, a computer expert in California, called Walt Woltosz, heard of my plight. He sent me a computer program he had written, called Equalizer. This allowed me to select words from a series of menus on the screen, by pressing a switch in my hand. The program could also be controlled by a switch, operated by head or eye movement. When I have built up what I want to say, I can send it to a speech synthesizer."

The Sydney Mind Switch

http://www.science.uts.edu.au/health/research/mind_switch.htm

Alpha electroencephalographic activity remains poorly understood. While it has been used in attempts to control devices like computers, to date, success has been limited. Our research has resulted in an advance in this area. We have shown participants can achieve rapid, reliable and remote control of an electrical device using alpha wave activity associated with reduced visual input.

Thought Translation Device (TTD)

http://www.uni-tuebingen.de/medizinischepsychologie/projekte/als.htm

the machine uses two electrodes stuck to the scalp to measure an electrical signal produced in the brain's cortex immediately before a thought or action. These signals are fed into a computer: by manipulating his thoughts to cause shifts in the signals' amplitude the client can move a cursor to select one of halves of the alphabet, which appears successfully in thebottom of the screen. If he sees the letter he wants he moves the cursor down to the lower half of the screen. Each time he chooses, the bank of remaining divides agin. Eventually, he is left just with the letter he wants. The reserach is being done at the University of Tubingen in Germany.

"Salzmann (the client) communicates with others by controlling his brain signals and using them to instruct a computer to spell. For many "locked-in" patients, being able to make contact with people and interact with the outside world makes a vital difference to quality of life, bestowing a sense of autonomy and even sustaining the will to live." 22 February, New Scientist.

Collaborate and Discuss

Organisations

WAI are part of the

The Web Accessibility Initiative (part of the World Wide Web Consortium) pursues accessibility of the Web through five primary areas of work: technology, guidelines, tools, education and outreach, and research and development.

http://www.w3.org/WAI/

who make Bobby

CAST is an educational, not-for-profit organization that uses technology to expand opportunities for all people, including those with disabilities.

http://www.cast.org/

The Association for Higher Education Access and Disability

http://www.ahead.ie/

Analyse & Synthesize

Consider the following questions :

Is quality of Life enhanced by Assistive Technology ?

In what ways could Assistive Technology be considered inapproiate ?

Can Assistitve Technology cause more harm than good ?

Is a picture worth a thousand words ? If so why ?

Do you think Stevie Wonder uses the web ?

Is quality of Life enhanced by Assistive Technology ?
In what ways could Assistive Technology be considered inapproiate ?
Can Assistitve Technology cause more harm than good ?
Is a picture worth a thousand words ? If so why ?
Do you think Stevie Wonder uses the web ?

Is quality of Life enhanced by Assistive Technology ?
In what ways could Assistive Technology be considered inapproiate ?
Can Assistitve Technology cause more harm than good ?
Is a picture worth a thousand words ? If so why ?
Do you think Stevie Wonder uses the web ?

Create & Promote New Information

Choose a specific impairment or disability that you are interested in and would like to know more about, using the web, search for a definition of it and explain in simple terms how it impacts on the learner.

Possible impairments you could consider are:

Hearing
Dyspraxia
Aphasia
Autism
Motor-neuron disease
Dyslexia

Research and suggest an appropriate AT that could be utilised to aid an individual (adult or child) in there day-to-day lives. Make a note of all acronyms and synonyms and related terms to the impairment you are investigating.

Prepare a Powerpoint Presentation to outline your findings.

Resources & Readings in preparation (or post) for the lecture

Raftery Biography (Long)

http://www.galwayonline.ie/history/history2/rafter.htm

Raftery Biography (Short)

http://homepage.tinet.ie/%7Eforegan/adc/raftery.html

"Mise Raifteirí"

http://www.gael-image.com/doras/ceachtanna/ceacht1-lch3.html

Everything you ever wanted to know about accessible Web Design

http://trace.wisc.edu/world/web/

Everything you ever wanted to know about assistive technology

http://www.abledata.com/text2/default.htm

Everything you ever wanted to know about Smart Spaces

http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~jasonh/research/context/

This page is designed to provide a learning environment for students and lectures of the M.Sc. IT in Education at Trinity College, Dublin. Otherwise, all rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the written permission of the copyright holder. Such written permission must also be obtained before any part of this work is stored in a retrieval system of any nature. Exceptions are for quoting materialand linking this work - please follow academic standards.

Contributors of the content of this page include: Paul Lynch and Damian Gordon.

http://www.google.com/search?num=20&hl=en&safe=off&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&q=mind+switch+8

http://www.comp.dit.ie/dgordon/Lectures/Enabling_Tech02/Introduction/include.htm

http://hosted2.deecash.com/allgagpasstgp/al

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/

The Sydney Mind Switch

http://www.comp.dit.ie/dgordon/Lectures/Enabling_Tech02/Introduction/include.htm

blue tooth wireless ????

http://www.uts.edu.au/new/archives/2001/March/13.html

http://www.science.uts.edu.au/news/2003/May/27.html

http://www.raven1.net/m_switch.htm

http://www.science.uts.edu.au/news/2003/May/27.html

http://www.uts.edu.au/new/archives/2001/March/13.html

PodcastDirectory Episode: The MindSwitch interview PodcastThe MindSwitch interview. DATE : Thu, 27 Oct

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London exhibition for UTS Mind Switch
http://www.uts.edu.au/new/archives/2001/March/13.html

Teaching & Learning About UTS Studying at UTS Working at UTS Research
Students & Graduates Quicklinks Find

© Copyright UTS
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index4

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Yahoo! Reference: American Heritage® Dictionary

ramp

1. What is Assistive Technology (AT)?

2. Terminology

3. Policies and Organisations

4. Frameworks

5. Research Journals

6. Basic System to support add-on adaptations

7. Accessible Web Design

8. Assistive Software/Hardware Technology

Ireland

Eye Tracking

Some techniques ;

Reflected Light

Electric Skin Potential

Contact Lenses

The Sydney Mind Switch