Talk:Assistive technology

There

There seems to be some confusion here. Assistive technology is technology that is used in addition to regular technology to enable a disabled user to access, ideally with normal speed and in an integrated manner, what non-disabled people can access without such technology.

For using the internet, asistive technology includes voice-enabled web browsersand read-back devices, braille readers and output devices, voice inout browsers, magnigying screen readers, etc.

The other side of the coin is what web developers can to do make their content more accessible. In software design, this is called universal access design. This does not necessarily require the disabled user to acquire any assistive technology. Items included here are keyboard-only navigation, possible in Microsoft Windows and most of their other software, as well as, the Opera browser, proper formating of links, atlernate attributes in tags for images etc. Many of these design principles, however, do assume some assistive technology on the part of the disabled user, and try to insure that such assistive technology is allowed to function properly. For exampled, for a blind internet user, it is assumed that he/she will be using some assistive technology like a voice enabled browser, at least. Then, some of these principles of universal design, like alternate attributes on images, do assume assistive technology. There are always additional advantages to such design, however, There are people with old enough, or weak enough computers that they can only access text only content. For them, such explanations of what an image describes is useful too.

In summmary, assistive technology should only include technology that supplements what the non-disabled user needs to access software, or even their computers at all. Another example-for those with with extreme mobility-impairments, breath-enabled controls for computers are available. (Opinion-If I am reaching a point that even one person is "beginning to feel uncomfortable at these details," I say, good!!!)

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I don't see why you didn't just edit the assistive technology article rather than write the above review. --LMS---- Because that would be too simple...:-) RoseParks

Suggest 14 possible wiki links for Assistive technology.

An automated Wikipedia link suggester has some possible wiki link suggestions for the Assistive_technology article:

• Can link universal design: ...great rewards to the normal user; good accessible design is universal design, they say. The classic example of an assistive technology ...
• Can link telephone line: ...erts typed characters into tones which may be sent over the telephone line, the deaf person is able to communicate immediately at a di...
• Can link contact centre: ...en the alert is triggerred, a message is sent to a carer or contact centre who can respond appropriately. The range of sensors is wid...
• Can link visually impaired: ...gy to support the learning and employment opportunities for visually impaired users. Royal National Institute for the Blind. ISBN 1858785... (link to section)
• Can link Royal National Institute for the Blind: ...g and employment opportunities for visually impaired users. Royal National Institute for the Blind. ISBN 1858785170.... (link to section)
• Can link Richmond, VA: ...bilitation counselor desktop guide to supported employment. Richmond, VA : Virginia Commonwealth University Rehabilitation Research ... (link to section)
• Can link Virginia Commonwealth University: ...selor desktop guide to supported employment. Richmond, VA : Virginia Commonwealth University Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Supported Em... (link to section)
• Can link Denver, CO: ...the annual meeting of The Council for Exceptional Children, Denver, CO.... (link to section)
• Can link Learning disabilities: ...il for Exceptional Children, Denver, CO. * Lee, C. (1999). Learning disabilities and assistive technologies; an emerging way to touch the fu... (link to section)
• Can link Amherst, MA: ...ssistive technologies; an emerging way to touch the future. Amherst, MA: McGowan Publications.... (link to section)
• Can link The CALL: ... * Nisbet, P. & Poon, P. (1998). Special Access Technology. The CALL Centre, University of Edinburgh. Available as a free downlo... (link to section)
• Can link University of Edinburgh: ...oon, P. (1998). Special Access Technology. The CALL Centre, University of Edinburgh. Available as a free download from: [http://callcentre.educ... (link to section)
• Can link individual differences: ...042136 * Rose, D. & Meyer, A. (2000). Universal design for individual differences. Educational Leadership, 58(3), 39-43.... (link to section)
• Can link National Library: ...vents diary) * [http://atp.nlb-online.org/Lessons/p_00.php] National Library for the Blind (Access Technology Primer)... (link to section)

Notes: The article text has not been changed in any way; Some of these suggestions may be wrong, some may be right.
Feedback: I like it, I hate it, Please don't link to — LinkBot 11:30, 1 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Assistive Technology examples

The example stating, "the modern telephone is, except for the deaf, universally accessible" misses the mark, especially when one considers the following example, the calculator.

The very same mobility impairments (not deafness) cited as challenges to a person's ability to use a calculator can preclude effective use of a "standard" telephone; reach, fine motor control, etc. Further, the same solution offered for calculator access is available for telephones: voice-based control.

(My very first Wiki comment. Yes, if I had the time, I'd edit the page right now... Need to think on it more.)

-dtp-

recently added, recently cut

The following paragraph was recently added to the article. It obviously specific to some country (or other, smaller political jurisdiction) but does not give its context, so I've cut it, because that lack of context renders it meaningless. Feel free to add back basically this material, but with context! (Oh, and a citation wouldbe nice, too.) -- 06:28, May 2, 2005 (UTC)

Assistive Technology is becoming very evident in K-12 Education. With the passage of IDEA 1997, all students with disabilities that are eligble for special education are required to be considered for assistive technology. In this way, assistive technology can be used to help compensate for skills that are yet to be developed by an individual student so that the student can continue to access the content of the school curriculum.

telephones, universal design, telecare

I agree that universal design should be a separate topic, and so should be telecare.

Telecare for the person being monitored is not assistive technology-- but rather a medical technology used to monitor them from a remote location. However, if there is a medical provider that is unable to travel due to their disability, then perhaps telecare could be considered an assistive technology to the healthcare provider.

Telephones are not universally accessible to people with visual impairments either--they have various lights, displays, buttons other than the number pad, unique number pad arrangements, etc. I am taking that "universally accessible" phrase out. --141.157.54.195 16:06, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

Lists of organisations for assistive technology

How do these lists not violate WP:EL WP:SPAM WP:NOT? --Ronz 01:52, 1 October 2006 (UTC)

Quite a few are prominent non-profits with ad-free sites, and I think those are appropriate, but I wouldn't mind seeing it winnowed. - Jmabel | Talk 03:30, 3 October 2006 (UTC)

That's a good point. Two things: (1) They'll get added back regularly (not that that makes you wrong, just a problem) and (2) If we winnow it, what criteria do we use? Most famous? National? Oldest? Agree a list? The last seems the most fruitful, but it may be heated. I tried to resolve a similar problem on the Screen_readers page by removing the growing list of screen readers to a separate List_of_screen_readers page, but they keep getting added back in to Screen readers and I'm not sure that a page of links was in compliance with Not a directory anyway. How best to proceed? - Alasdairking | Talk 18:20, 10 October 2006

I think it is important to remember that these articles are for informing readers about the topics. For this topic, I'd favor links to government-run organizations and government-provided resources, which I'd hope would have lists of other organizations, lists of technologies, etc. Beyond those, I'm not sure. --Ronz 18:20, 10 October 2006 (UTC)

Also, if one of these has a good collection of links to others, including one such directory is actually recommended in Wikipedia:External links. - Jmabel | Talk 06:26, 14 October 2006 (UTC)

Okay, I've been through all the links: most are spam. These two looked the best of them: Assistive Technology Product Database - American Foundation for the Blind and ABLEDATA Global database of AT and Rehab products. Any preferences? Alasdairking | Talk 18:00, 16 October 2006

Thanks! ABLEDATA seems to be exactly like what I mentioned: "Maintained for the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research of the U.S. Dept. of Education". It's very extensive, with a large amount of information and links to sites such as that of the American Foundation for the Blind. --Ronz 19:04, 16 October 2006 (UTC)

External links

While cleaning up the external links, I found one that was spam, which I removed, but I also found AccessWorld [1] and Better Living Through Technology [2] to be questionable but left them in. Thoughts? --Ronz 20:36, 8 December 2006 (UTC)

Kill 'em, plenty of links here, we're not a web directory. - Jmabel | Talk 17:50, 12 December 2006 (UTC)

Introduction

This article's introduction needs a major rewrite. It's far too long to be merely introducing the reader to the subject. Either the article content needs thorough review, or the introduction needs to be kept brief and more needs to be added to the main body. -- VegitaU 00:07, 15 April 2007 (UTC)

Wiki link

Anon user added this link. Not sure it adds anything to article. Placed here for discussion.

• Wikiversity Assistive Technology

Calltech (talk) 15:16, 16 March 2008 (UTC)

AT Category

Maybe it's just me, but I'm noticing a lot of oddities in Category:Assistive technology. It seems to me that Chargebox, ILIAS, Logitech Harmony Remote, and Universal remote don't belong in there. Or am I crazy? Perhaps my understanding of how these qualify as AT is limited and somebody can enlighten me? -Etoile (talk) 22:06, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

Telcare as proactive rather than reactive technology.

In 1995 I started a company called Telcare Company of Canada. It was a database technology coupled with predictive dialer that called home patients up to 8 times a day and reminded them to take specific medication, doctor appointments, and any other treatment, The messages could be changed with the ease of changes to your voicemail. it was linked to meditrust a mail order pharmacy so it could keep abreast of medication changes. If after three tries the person failed to answer it started calling help numbers, closest first ie. nieghbour superintendent, family members, finally it called 911, live operaters were available and it was linked to ontario distress centers It failed for two reasons. the technology needed was in its infancy, especially voice recognition. an example of this is we needed 10 gigs of memory for the data base an unheard of amount in those days outside of a mainframe. we had cutting edge 486's. to solve this problem we bought an external hard drive for $10,000.00 that held 20 gig. buttons on a phone can prove daunting for the ederly, voice recognition now resolves that problem. cell and cordless phones were also in there infancy. now you could have a phone like the lifline button, that the person wore, and answered or dialed with one button, thanks to voice recognition. A further problem was the funding came from two very different partners AT & T , and Cousel Corp. who owned American Home Patient. This was largely the Riechmans, so you had the largest wasp corp and largest jewish corp as partners. These two groups had very different management styles and totally different agendas, I believe this more than anything pulled the company apart. I own the intellectual property rights and I am presently looking into ways to restart this company as to my knowledge it has still not been done. If anyone knows of it being done, or are interested in helping bring this to the market--72.38.152.98 (talk) 01:14, 21 July 2008 (UTC) contact me at john@onlineglobalpromotions.com

Rubbing teeth to make music

Talk:Vocal_percussion#Rubbing teeth is a neat idea that allows one to make music even if all their body can move still is their jawbone. Jidanni (talk) 23:36, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

Minor spelling edits

I've made the following minor spelling edits to this page. Changed recognisable to recognizable, travellers to travelers, carer to caregiver, keyguards to key guards and keypresses to key presses. Jbtrout (talk) 01:04, 24 April 2010 (UTC)