An Italian inventor built the first typewriter to help a blind countess write legibly. Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone because his wife and mother were deaf. The remote control was invented for people with limited mobility. Today's office scanners evolved from technologies created to make talking books for the blind.
From the typewriter to the remote control, special access tools developed for disabled individuals eventually become conveniences for everyone.
Stanford University's Archimedes Project is working to make information accessible to everyone -- not just individuals with disabilities, but also the elderly, those who can't read and just about anyone else who uses computers and information appliances.
The Archimedes Project is building accessible technology that outperforms other commercial products so "non-disabled people will want it," said project leader and co-founder Neil Scott.
This summer, Stanford graduate students will collaborate with industry executives to create innovative products for people with disabilities through a 10-week program called the Archimedes Access Factory.
Guest speakers such as Paul Saffo, director of the Institute for the Future; Doug Engelbart, inventor of the computer mouse; and John Ittelson, director of the Idea Lab, will discuss how their work advances universal access.
Traditionally, adaptive technology requires individuals with disabilities to use modified versions of existing computers and devices.
Widely used interface strategies often rely too heavily on a single sense, such as sight. When the graphical user interface (GUI) was introduced, developers assumed that blind and visually impaired people wouldn't use it, creating an almost impenetrable barrier for those computer users.
Blind or visually impaired users rely on screen readers or other adaptive technologies to navigate computers and the Internet.
But that approach is becoming impractical as developers struggle to keep pace with technological obsolescence and increasingly complex operating systems and software.
"One of the key problems for disabled people is that when equipment is arbitrarily obsoleted, they don't have the resources to keep (getting hardware and software) upgraded," said Scott. "Obsolescence is really a bad thing for the disability industry."
The Archimedes Project's approach is radically different. The project designed a Total Access System (TAS) that enables individuals with special needs to have access to any computer or computer-based device.
Each individual is equipped with an "accessor," a single device that allows the user to utilize all computers and information appliances without specialized hardware or software. These accessors use speech recognition, head-and-eye-tracking and other "human-centered interfaces" that match individual needs.
A Total Access Port connects the PC and the user interface, providing standardized access to all user input and output.
"A key element (of the TAS) is to allow a person to select whatever input and output strategies fit the way they do things," said Scott. This approach "allows people to truly mix and match different modalities.... It gives them a huge amount of flexibility."
The Total Access System assists people such as J.B. Galan, who has an undergraduate degree from Stanford and an MBA from the University of California at Berkeley's Haas School of Business. Galan has been a quadriplegic since he was injured in a diving accident at age 16.
Galan uses a voice-recognition system that projects his words onto a computer screen. He can control the cursor using head movements.
Despite its benefits, accessible technology must continue to improve before it sees mainstream adoption.
"Voice recognition isn't reliable enough yet," said Scott.
Even though systems have become faster and more accurate, "it still takes time for a person to figure out how to use it."
The Archimedes Project is using disambiguation software to determine how to create a voice recognition system that has a "very high certainty for a few words that fit the current context," said Scott.
The project will focus on using intelligent agent systems "to make (a computer) behave more like a person," and "to take away the need for a person to learn a script before they can do anything.
"We want to get away from having to spell out (instructions to a computer) to (having a computer) be able to express intent."
Scott wants to apply invisible computing to the next generation of accessible technologies.
Rather than designing products specifically for individuals with disabilities and generalizing them to the rest of the population, the Archimedes Project is figuring out what accessible products they can make for the general population that will also be affordable for people with disabilities.
The project is developing equipment with a lifespan of decades, rather than creating hardware that lasts just a few years and requires frequent upgrades.
"There are billions of people that need very basic access tools if they are going to be part of the information," Scott said. "In the Third World, the aging and the disabled aren't that interested in upgrading.
"We want equipment in the disability field to be driven by need and performance, rather than market forces to have the latest and greatest."
