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NSF-Supported Innovation: Devices to Assist Persons with DisabilitiesThe National Science Foundation (NSF) has a long history of supporting research to aid persons with disabilities. Through targeted studies to develop new products and broadly based programs to educate the next generation of engineers and scientists, NSF has backed projects that help people with disabilities transcend common challenges. The news tips below present samples of recent innovations from NSF programs that seek to resolve those challenges. For more information on these science news and feature story tips, please contact the public information officer at the end of each item at (703) 292-8070. Editor: Josh Chamot Contents of this News Tip:
Interactive Robot Motivates Children with Physical Disabilities
Electronic Tutor Teaches Mathematics in Braille
Using a combination of Braille and synthesized speech, a new device teaches fundamental mathematics to people who are visually impaired. The successful Speech Assisted Learning (SAL) system, developed with NSF SBIR support, offers unique lessons in Braille math that augment a teacher's instruction, combating a shortage of Braille teachers. Teens and adults who are visually impaired, and people with sight interested in learning Braille, can use SAL to study independently with only occasional support from an instructor. Developed by Sally Mangold of Exceptional Teaching Aids, Inc., SAL is a flat, notebook-size device onto which students place special Braille sheets. Each SAL sheet bears a UPC barcode the SAL device uses to determine the words on the page. As a student runs his or her fingers across the Braille text, the student can press down on a letter, word or number that he or she is having trouble remembering and the SAL will pronounce it. With a second press, SAL will spell a word or describe a mathematical symbol. "Braille is much more than raised dots on a page," said Mangold, who is visually impaired, "it is opportunity, enlightenment and empowerment." The latest version of the device displays mathematics in vertical, horizontal or word problem formats. The SAL system can present, in a Braille format, the same mathematical concepts and problems that appear in regular print books. The SAL developers also installed high-quality speech synthesizers for English and Spanish so one device can provide curriculum in both languages. "When you maximize someone's abilities, you minimize their disabilities," said Mangold. "The overwhelming public response to SAL supports our belief that SAL begins a new era in Braille instruction for children and adults," she said. The special curriculum consists of individually embossed sheets of Braille and a data file for each lesson. A student places a single sheet on the pressure sensitive touchscreen and inserts a 3.5-inch diskette into the SAL system for each book or problem set (a flash media card enables users to input larger lessons). "SAL is an innovative approach to instruction in an area in which there is a teacher shortage," said NSF's Sara Nerlove. "SAL provides supplementary instruction of Braille in a manner that can be tailored to meet the needs of many different blind persons - no matter what their ages or circumstances," she said. In addition to allowing students to work on studies at home, the SAL system will bring Braille instruction to a greater number of venues, such as schools, libraries, and government centers - institutions that may lack the staff to teach Braille full time. [Josh Chamot] Dr. Mangold will demonstrate the SAL system in Room 110 of the National Science Foundation building in Arlington, Virginia at 10:00 AM on Thursday, September 26. Contact Josh Chamot at jchamot@nsf.gov to register to attend. For information on SAL, see: http://www.exceptionalteaching.com/index_files/page0002.htm
and Young Engineers Build AccessibilityTo graduate from accredited, undergraduate engineering programs, students need to complete a senior design course. As part of an NSF program, engineering seniors across the country devote their course time to solving an accessibility problem for a person with disabilities. Beginning in 1988, the program - now called the Research to Aid Persons with Disabilities Undergraduate Design Projects' Activity - has supported rising engineers at dozens of universities. While some projects are later marketed, the program aims to meet a specific need for an individual with a unique concern or an inability to afford a more expensive technology. "Participants in the activity have a hands-on, face-to-face, relationship with specific disabled individuals," said NSF program director Gilbert Devey. "The experience is far different and more rewarding than being confined in what can be an inanimate environment in the traditional engineering design laboratory," he said. The hundreds of projects have ranged from straightforward innovations, such as a "Sock Genie" (created by Christopher Baxter of SUNY-Buffalo to help persons with back and joint ailments put on socks) to complex systems, such as a voice-activated apartment (created by Greg Browinski, Douglas Thompson, and Sean O'Connell of the University of Massachusetts at Lowell). The Lowell students used only $100 and an old personal computer to wire the apartment of a Massachussetts man paralyzed from the neck down so he could control nearly every electronic device by voice command. "The 'real-world' experience that comes from directly aiding a fellow human gives engineering students an enormous sense of purpose and pride," said Devey. Engineering programs from across the country have reported that students have benefited from the program as much as recipients, learning first-hand how disabilities affect people, and assisting their "clients" and others with disabilities well after graduation. [Josh Chamot] For information on NSF's Biomedical Engineering & Research to Aid Persons with Disabilities (BME/RAPD) program, see: http://www.eng.nsf.gov/bes/Programs/ Biomedical_Engineering_Basic/biomedical_engineering_basic.htm For complete listings of all senior design projects through 2001, see: http://nsf-pad.bme.uconn.edu "Pick and Click" Software Improves Internet Access for the Visually Impaired
Researchers have developed a new Internet browser that improves web access for people with visual impairments. Dubbed PnC Net, the software enhances any website on the Internet by magnifying graphics, organizing links into lists, and translating text into spoken audio. PnC Net is an expansion of the "Pick and Click" (hence PnC) technology developed by Charlie Tran and Jim Bliss of JBliss Imaging Systems with support from the NSF SBIR program. PnC Net works with Microsoft web products, yet specifically addresses web navigation from the perspective of someone with visual impairments. "In developing PnC Net, we wanted people with low vision to have the same access to Internet power as everyone else," said Bliss. "The success of our early users indicates that PnC Net is a major step in that direction." Where a standard Microsoft Internet Explorer webpage demands a degree of hand-eye coordination to navigate using buttons at the top of a screen, PnC Net eliminates the buttons - replacing most of them with a simple list. Using only a mouse, or arrow keys and the Esc and Pause/Break keys, a user can bring different parts of an enlarged page into view, start or stop a voice synthesizer at any point in the text, and tab through the links, downloading the selected one. The enlarged text and link names are spoken by the synthesizer, with the browser highlighting each word as it is spoken. Because the Internet Explorer tool bars are eliminated, the web page fills the entire screen. In addition, the user can magnify the page up to 10 times if necessary. And as an added bonus, the software can even eliminate pop-up advertisements, if desired. While PnC Net generally preserves page layout - with scrollbars allowing a user to access the entire page - text wraps to fit into the column or screen. PnC Net will also allow a user to select specific text for the synthesizer to read using a mouse or a "Find" function. "PnC Net's simplified system for access to the Web, e-mail and text files addresses the needs of a growing population that currently under-utilizes computer and Internet technology," said NSF program manager Sara Nerlove. While visually impaired individuals can navigate the web using computer adaptations, early studies suggest that PnC Net users can navigate more rapidly and with greater ease than those who use existing aids. "Reading the newspaper, purchasing goods and services, managing bank and stock accounts, obtaining medical information, and communicating with email are all tasks low vision PnC Net users are learning to do quickly and easily," said Bliss. [Josh Chamot] For information on PnC Net, see: http://www.jbliss.com/pncNet.html
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