Technology Provides Help for Disabled at CSUN : Computers: The lab has aided hundreds with visual limitations, communication disorders and physical and learning disabilities.
For Richard Williams, 26, a blind history major at Cal State Northridge, taking class notes used to be a tedious project. After tape-recording a lecture, he would transcribe the material using a Braille typewriter--a process that took about three hours for every hour he spent in class.
Then Williams got a laptop computer, and the Computer Access Lab at CSUN got a Braille embosser. After that, the senior could take notes directly on his laptop (equipped with a voice synthesizer and headphones) and then “dump” the notes into the embosser for a Braille printout.
Williams is one of 210 students registered with the Computer Access Lab, a 2-year-old facility designed to help CSUN students graduate and get jobs with the assistance of technology.
Available to any disabled CSUN student who signs up with the Office of Disabled Student Services, the lab has helped 680 students with visual limitations, communication disorders, physical disabilities and learning disabilities.
The lab serves as a temporary resource and training ground while students get what they need for themselves. Williams is a case in point.
“I’ve done my very best to get as much of my own equipment as possible, or at least have access to it,” he said. “Where I work, at the Los Angeles Air Force Base, in the history office, we are ordering a Braille embosser.”
For Terri Shallenberger, 22, a communicative disorders major who will be a senior in the fall, the Computer Access Lab’s pragmatic approach to computer modifications has had tangible results.
With hand and finger movements severely limited by a condition called arthrogryposis, she hadn’t typed much before. (“I had a class in junior high, and I typed with my hands, but it was really slow--really, really slow.”)
Then the Computer Access Lab rigged up an inexpensive bracket to hold a computer keyboard in a vertical position level with her feet. Pieces of plastic spoons were glued to the keyboard to identify the home row. Now, when she wants to type, Shallenberger uses her big toes in a modified form of hunt and peck.
She’s still training (using a standard program called Typing Tutor), but the new approach has helped. “It was the difference between 14 words a minute and 25,” she said.
And as a result of her new typing skills, Shallenberger received a promotion in her job at the University Student Union, where she uses a wooden stand made by a friend to support a modified keyboard. She feels confident that other employers would be willing to make similar modifications “because it’s so cheap.”
The Computer Access Lab is a component of the Technology Group, a larger network of technological resources intended to improve the lives of disabled CSUN students. Other important components include an annual international conference on Technology and Persons with Disabilities, training in what its practitioners call assistive technology for rehabilitation professionals and employers (offered through a grant from the Rehabilitation Services Administration), and engineering research and development in assistive technology.
Neil Scott, engineer/programmer and assistive technology specialist, heads a special project, funded by another federal grant, to develop a universal access system that will allow disabled students to use any computer at the Northridge campus.
At present, for example, Williams can use only certain computers at the lab, because only those computers are equipped to work with his particular disability.
“The universal-access concept is to make each computer have an interface that can work with devices that the disabled people carry around with them, which we call ‘accessors,’ ” Scott said. That way, “you’re able to interact with any computer because you bring all your special stuff with you.”
Under a grant from the Department of Rehabilitation, CSUN is also developing a laptop computer system for people with learning disabilities.
The Computer Access Lab houses about $400,000 worth of equipment, according to Dr. Marshall Raskind, coordinator of the Learning Disability Program and the Computer Access Lab. Included are voice recognition systems, speech synthesizers, modified keyboards, special switches and augmented communication devices.
Initially financed with a grant from the state Department of Rehabilitation, funding has come from a number of agencies and corporations, including Apple Computer, IBM, Hewlett-Packard and Digital Equipment Corp.
But equipment ages fast in the technology field, and keeping up is a constant challenge. Part of the effort involves seeking appropriate donations from corporations.
“We go after things that we need,” Scott said, “but we don’t have as many things as we really want--yet--because a lot of the specialized equipment, the companies that make that, are too small to be able to make big donations.” So a lot of the progress has to come through adaptations to standard equipment.
That’s where Scott’s Think and Do Group comes in. A group of community volunteers with an interest in technological solutions, its purpose “is to bring resources, in terms of manpower for software and development, that you couldn’t get any other way,” Scott said. He said he also has six students involved in projects “where the outcome will be something for disabled people to use.”
Ideas for Think and Do Group projects will come in part from Scott, training specialist Diane Bristow, and Gail Pickering, a full-time assistive technology specialist working with the Computer Access Lab.
“Most of the people we have to deal with don’t have resources to have exotic solutions,” Scott said. “So we’re always having to look at what are the practical solutions in terms of the cost, the ruggedness, the availability of the components. . . . “
Scott looks for ways to make existing technology adaptable to new situations, such as using something developed for blind people with students who have learning disabilities.
Also, Scott said, “We’re always looking for things that are mass produced or used in industry that could be carried across into the disability field.”
For example, standard fiber-optic tubes used by industry can be mounted on a pair of glasses and adapted to sense eye movements in a way that acts as a switch to operate a computer. A fiber-optic tube costs about $35, Scott said. “For me to go through and create something like that would cost significantly more than $35.”
The Computer Access Lab’s second-year grant from the Department of Rehabilitation ran out June 13. From now on, the university will provide funds. Students such as Terri Shallenberger know that the money is well spent.
“Computers are so widely used,” she said, “that anybody who gets the opportunity is going to do really well once they get out of here.”
