June-July-1993 Access---Ability:-Assistive-Technologies-and-the-Net (Full Text) Dr. Norman Coombs In the interest of supporting the development of the an Internet that is accessible to everyone, The Internet Business Journal, in cooperation with Dr. Norman Coombs, has made this regular column freely available on the Net. Today's phenomenal explosion of high speed data networks and online services brings information to the user instead of the user having to travel to the information source. This fact, along with the advent of adapted computer systems, means that the computer user with disabilities becomes and enabled user, not a disabled user. The development of the personal computer with adaptive software and/or hardware has been one of the most liberating innovations for handicapped persons in modern times. Thousands of us have realized that the ability to take this new powerful tool and connect it to a modem and telephone can bring the world to serve our needs. Besides opening a world of information and learning to us, it has the potential to open hundreds of new employment opportunities for a group which has the highest unemployment rate in the United States. But, what does this mean to readers of this journal who do not suffer from such disabilities? If you are responsible for a business or and educational institution, these newly empowered persons comprise a valuable pool of potential employees. Many studies show that "handicapped workers" have better records on days off for illness or late arrivals at work. Those of us who have struggled even to get a job interview understand having employment from a different perspective. If you are responsible for finding consumers for a product or potential applicants for an educational institution, these same people are also a valuable resource for you. There are over 43 million persons in the United States with physical disabilities, which is approaching twenty percent of the population. Other countries must have similar numbers. Computer telecommunications is rapidly providing access to numerous commercial and educational services and also to an expanding variety of information sources. These include online education, access to reference works, full-text books and periodicals, a wide variety of databases for education and business as well as online shopping services. While accessing them from a computer at home instead of travelling to its geographic location is convenient for most people, this ability provides an entirely new opportunity for those of us with physical disabilities. I am a college professor with a Ph.D. in history and some 30 years of teaching. Yet, it was only a couple years ago that I had the ability to connect from my PC in the office or home with an electronic encyclopedia. Before acquiring access to this technology, I had to rely on a reader and do the reading at a scheduled working time. Not long before that, I was able to "read" the entries in our college's electronic catalogue and "see" that they had my book. Yes, I knew it before, but it is different to experience it first hand. I can now look up airline schedules and fares, do catalogue shopping and on and on. Every new opportunity brings new problems with it. What are those problems, and how can information providers assist this large pool of potential employees and consumers? The answer is complicated by the fact that there are various disabilities and that people may have varying degrees of disability. Persons, like myself, who are blind, need monitor output adapted to play through a speech synthesizer. Those with vision impairment and some persons with learning disabilities need other adaptations to the computer display. Another group of persons with disabilities need adaptations to the computer input device, the keyboard or the mouse. Some need software to compensate for their inability to press 2 or more keys simultaneously. There are key guards to let users rest their hands on while using the keyboard. Depending on what particular limited muscle movement a motor impaired person may have, there are a variety of single switch devices that can substitute for both the keyboard and mouse. In future issues, this column will address the specifics of these topics as well as other related information. There are a couple general comments that can be made in this first discussion. Computer and software designers have tended to postulate an average user in designing their hardware and software. Of course, most of us miss that average. Modern car manufacturers have likewise realized there aren't many average users. The wife of one of my friends is quite short, and, before small cars became common, she had difficulty reaching the gas or brake pedals even with the seat moved forward. Her husband fastened a wooden block to the pedals! So, now we have seats that move much further, and steering wheels that tilt. The driver can adjust the car to his or her needs and wishes. Yet, we have computer designers arguing over whether a text-based output is best or a graphics display, whether keyboard input is best or a mouse. What will be best for the average user? Happily, there are also designers who talk about user definable interfaces and front ends. Then, users can select the kind of environment with which they are most comfortable. Let me use gopher menus as one partial example. When a menu of choices is displayed, the user has two types of input choices. One item is highlighted and that can be moved up and down using the arrow keys. Simultaneously, each menu item has a number next to it. The user can input that number to make a selection instead of moving the highlighted bar. Here is a simple online interface which permits the user to chose the input method he or she prefers. Prodigy has committed itself to graphics displays which thus far makes their entire system inaccessible to blind users. Good design could have provided the possibility for the customer to select graphics or text displays. Once the applications are developed, finding ways to adapt and access them later is difficult, expensive and perhaps not possible. Designing products for the widest possible spectrum of users, able and disabled, not only gives the provider the largest possible pool of users, it accommodates and assists people with a wide variety of preferences and even needs. Dr. Norman Coombs Professor of History, Rochester Institute of Technology Chair, EDUCOM's Project EASI (Equal Access to Software and Information) nrcgsh@ritvax.isc.rit.edu