Enhancing the Potential of Persons with Disability Using Assistive Technologies.Akamai Technologies, Bangalore and Spastics Society of Karnataka, Bangalore. Mr. Senthil Kumaran will dwell into topic of how your child's potential can enhanced with the help of assistive technology. As each child is unique and his/her requirements are different, it is incumbent that a good research on assistive technology suitable for his or her needs need to be done. He will provide an analysis of the technologies. analyzed such as Dasher, Head Mouse, Readers and Voice Recognition Technologies. And explain some of the freely available software and with little bit of customization the solutions ............used in a creative way to enhance ........... potential. ..........emphasis on..........how Assisitive Technologies provides a platform for your child to engage in creative activities which lead to a full-filling life........... Avinash, is a regular use of assistive technology and he will show how effectively he uses these technologies for all the activities he does on his computer independently. Affordable Assistive Devices for the Visually ImpairedASSISTECH: Assistive Devices for the Visually Impaired IIT, Delhi Abstract: In this presentation we describe the
technical activities of a group named ASSISTECH formed at IIT Delhi to design
and develop assistive devices for the visually impaired. ASSISTECH was formed
more than two years back with the clear objective of “Making a difference in
the lives of million plus visually impaired people by the year 2015”. At any
one time it is an active association of 12 to 15 students who contribute both
through academic projects as well as other activities. Specifically the group is working on the following four projects for the visually impaired: § Smart Cane: An aid for assisting safe mobility § Bus Identification Device: An aid for assisting use of public buses § Braille Tutor: A Braille and language learning device § Disha – Indoor Navigation Device: An aid for independent mobility within the public buildings These projects are in various stages of prototyping and testing. This seminar would be accompanied by a demo of the prototypes of the first three devices and a poster descrbing the fourth. Please visit www.cse.iitd.ac.in/assistech for details. The ARM Project - Making Accessible Reading Materials for Children with Early Literacy SkillsProf. Anil PrabahkarIIT Chennai Most of our brain growth and development happens during the first five years of our lives. Since sensory impairment can affect this process, intervention started early is most effective in preparing children for further education. But, ..............a lot of the children’s books available.............not friendly towards all children. ..............., what if you or your young one is visually impaired?.............if the book is written in a language alien to you? Chetana, along with The National Association for the Blind and Vidya Sagar, augmented five titles in Tamil and English from Tulika Publishers, and the technique has now been adopted by SSA, Tamil Nadu.................. Although the books are designed keeping disabilities in mind, the adaptations build literacy in all children. Children can feel the pictures, listen to clear spoken stories, dramatize the story with the props provided and even read along with the tape. .............helps develop reasoning and attention skills, ............sensory awareness and perspective............language and imagination in all children. So, how can we mass produce such books and yet keep them affordable? What are the alternatives to tactile printed books and can assistive technologies help in early literacy? Instrumentation for assessing Hand Function K. Srinivasa Babu; Muthu Kumar; Suresh Devasahayam Dept. of Neurological Sciences & Dept of Bioengineering Christian Medical College Vellore-632004 Our group is particularly interested in developing instruments for assessing hand function. Our objective is to be able to develop non-invasive instruments. The tasks that are required for using these instruments should be simple enough that even illiterates should be able to perform them comfortably. Here we describe four instruments that were designed and developed by our laboratories for the purpose of assessing hand function in patients with hand dysfunction. Precision grip instrument: In this task the subject is required to grip an object with thumb and index finger and lift it and hold it for a few seconds and place it back. The parameters that can be measured are onset of grip (time), peak grip force applied (N), object lifting time, rate of grip force application, rate of lift and steady grip force that is applied. This instrument is also capable of generating ramp loads, sinusoidal load forces and random loads. All these can be controlled through a computer and the data can collected on to a computer for further analysis. Skin friction measurement: .......... developed another instrument to measure coefficient of skin friction. In this instrument the subject is required to place a finger ............ Assessing spasticity in the forearm: Patients with cervical compressive myelopathy often have upper limb spasticity. To assess these patients clinicians holds their hand and rotates the patients forearm in clockwise and anticlockwise direction. If they sense any resistance to this passive rotation ..........we have developed another instrument where the subject is required to place the forearm in a cast and the forearm can be passively or actively rotated. EMG is recorded ........ and changes in the EMG activity can be documented. Quantitative assessment of strength of interosseous muscles of hand: This instrument was designed to measure abduction and adduction strength of fingers. These instruments are developed with a view to understand hand function in a way that they can be quantified. However, these instruments can also be modified with a few additions so that they can be used for therapeutic purpose in patients having hand dysfunctions. Accessibility Technologies at IBM Research (Human Ability & Accessibility Centre) Anil U Joshi, Program Director India HA&AC The IBM India Accessibility Centre, was launched with the goal of showcasing solutions developed at IBM Research that make Information Systems accessible for Persons with Disabilities. In today’s fast changing economic scenario, technology plays a very important role in our day to day life. Information Technology not only enables one to be at the forefront of knowledge, but empowers us to be more productive. In India more than 70 percent of the population lives in rural areas and may not have an access to technology. Similarly, persons with disabilities face difficulties in reaping the benefits of Information Technology. Accessibility is about making the technology usable by all, by overcoming limiting condition, thereby taking the benefits to everybody in society. The presentation will be on Accessible Technologies developed at IBM and how these can help people with disabilities to be active contributors to the economy, by participating in mainstream activities viz. education, banking, industry, entertainment, travel and tourism and so on. The presentation will include examples and facts on how Accessibility has a business value, rather than being just ‘nice to do’. It is this Business Value, which will drive further advancements in Accessibility, rather than the traditional charity approach. IBM presentation.,
Ms. Kalpana Veeraraghavan
Arun Mehta - CO - FOUNDER, RADIO PHONY, DELHI SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OF COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES FOR CHILDREN WITH MENTAL CHALLENGES According to US figures, since reliable numbers are not available for India, 1 in 90 children suffers from autism -- just one of many mental challenges. These children are often denied education, health services, and are the poorest among the poor (WHO, 1 April 2005). The challenge therefore, is not only the uniqueness of the condition of each child, but also in that any technological support needs to be very inexpensive.Our approach is based ................of the brain create problems in higher brain functions, such as skilled motor movements involved in handwriting and speech, flexibility, concept formation, and information filtering. The free and open source ................breaking complex tasks into tiny modules with a standardized interface, thus allowing easy learning, and adaptation to individual needs, ............ attracts such students as it provides a platform for hands-on learning in web programming. Child-friendly input devices such as joysticks, touchscreens, mouse, etc. are used. For those with limited motor skills, two button input is sufficient to control most modules. Extensive use is made of pictures for learning. These pictures can reflect the actual environment of the child, and be changed depending on what the child is currently learning. Text to speech provides audio feedback to the child as well. In case one kind of inputs works better or worse than some other for a specific child, appropriate changes are easy to make in Skid. Skid promotes functional literacy through modules that allow the child to find and recognize pictures, use them, where appropriate to construct sentences, and learn categories through games such as "odd man out." Simple games and photo-editing tools make the software well suited to pre-literate children as well. We are working towards integration of Skid into actual classroom teaching in two special schools in Delhi. Jonathan Campbell - USA Universal Design for LearningSchools have always struggled trying to meet the learning needs of their diverse student body. Students with learning disabilities and different learning styles can often face challenges in these environments. In an attempt to meet the needs of as many students as possible in the same classroom the concept of Universal Design for Learning was created. The idea behind "Universal Design" is to create an environment that meets the needs of as many different studends as possible. By universal, it is not meant that there is a single solution but rather designing multiple approaches to meet the needs of these diverse learners. In this session we will learn
what universal design in learning is, how it is being implemented in
classrooms, and why all classrooms can benefit from its use.In this session we will learn
what universal design in learning is, how it is being implemented in
classrooms, and why all classrooms can benefit from its use. Abstract: DEVELOPMENT OF AFFORDABLE, SUSTAINABLE AND INDEGENOUS TECHNOLOGY In India, the concept of Assistive Technologies has been limited to mostly hearing aids, prosthetics and wheelchairs. More sophisticated AT is needed help the person with special needs to perform many of the tasks required to function independently, communicate and be productive in today’s world. Such technologies have been around in the western world for almost 40 years. However, these are out of reach to those who need them in India. Since 70% of our people with disabilities are from the rural areas the high price of imported equipment is a huge hurdle. Then there are issues of availability, training, localization, service etc even for those who can afford them. With numbers ranging from 70-100 million people with special needs, pure philanthropic means of distribution are not viable. Considering the business models for these devices in the Insurance driven western world, it will be very difficult to for international makers to either sell current devices at the required price points or invest in research to make devices targeted to our needs. Hence the case for affordable, sustainable and indigenous technologies for our needs. However, in a country where basic data on disabilities is still not reliable and where the community of the disabled is yet to be perceived as a viable buying force, this is a challenging goal. The talk will discuss some of these challenges and the relevance of involvement of Corporate India in this process to overcome these challenges. The talk will use some live cases of indigenous technologies under various stages of maturity in the product lifecycle to discuss these challenges and more importantly, the opportunities for India.Raja Shanmugam |
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