1. Intro & physical

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What’s your ability? What’s your disability?

How do you grow in competence? … through your ability or disability? – examples?

Is your disability “curable?” Are student disabilities curable? Cognitive disabilities?

Traditional Assistive Technology: focused on physical and sensory disabilities. Here’s an example of a great assistive technology to help kids play video games, the Microsoft Adaptive Controller for X-Box:

Wheelchair, Glasses, Hearing Aids–evolution

  1. restore basic function: I can move, see, hear
  2. gain independence: I can move, see, hear on my own
  3. emerging: I can move, see, hear better than you

The wheelchair is the most common method of mobility for children and adults with paralysis, impaired legs, or coordination impairment. Take a 13-minute tour of the Top Assistive Technology for 2019 – from Segway to Lamborghini! All of these products are available today: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZJV8Jo0HtQ

Progress in Physical Disabilities through the evolution of leg Prosthetics: (note: adjust the speed of videos below, faster or slower, as needed)

Let’s start with Aimee Mullins, the story of a Lehigh Valley girl who lost both of her lower legs. She was one of the first amputees to be publicly visible as an athlete, model, and mentor for thousands of disabled children and adults. Here’s a 10-minute TED talk with Aimee:
https://www.ted.com/talks/aimee_mullins_prosthetic_aesthetics

Lisa Bufano, with lower legs, thumbs, and parts of hands amputated, has taken a similar disability as Aimee’s to become a highly original performance artist. Watch her 2-minute interview with clips of her amazing work: https://vimeo.com/44203006

Hugh Herr is an MIT Professor who lost his legs in a mountain climbing accident. Over the past decade, he has revolutionized lower leg prosthetics through advanced robotic technology integrated into the human body’s skeletal and nervous system. Now he can dance and do extreme mountain climbing again! Here’s a 10-minute introduction to his work: “MIT Engineer Build His Own Bionic Leg”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaFiwC1xh2Y

This 5-minute video extends the bionic leg example to normal people who experience this instantly life changing. It places this work in the context that one-fourth of adult Americans are disabled. It is likely that the number would be much higher in developing nations: “A giant step forward in artificial legs” – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFUrqI22akM

How much more complex are the hand and wrist compared to the foot and leg? Here is a 12-minute talk showing the latest bionic arm (and you’ll meet the “most bionic man in the world”) 12-minutes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFUrqI22akM

The ultimate prosthetic – directly controlled by the brain!

A question for you? Which of the above examples can apply to children of age 6, 12, or 13 who have similar disabilities? Which ones can’t? What conclusions or ideas seem appropriate. Don’t include cost because cutting-edge products have high research costs. Imagine if they became commodities much the the cost of computers have decreased by several thousand or million percent.

Accessibility

From curb cuts to every computer, tablet, and phone, disabled individuals need ways to access a world designed for fully-abled people.

Section 508 of the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) specifies the requirements for public areas to be more accessible to the disabled. Parts of Section 508 refer to Web accessiblity, which is more completely addressed by the World Wide Web Consortium’s Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). The current WAI standard is WCAG 2.1

Here’s a real example of global fight for fair copyright laws that enable disabled people to access the kind of information and knowledge in books. It’s the story of the “Miracle of Marrakesh” (14-min). Stay with it till the end. Speed up if you like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KM0UdZEnAVI

Voice Control is a rapidly emerging assistive technology, especially for portable devices like smartphones: Siri, Cortana, Alexa, Google Assistant, Bixby, etc. Could this be used in a real classroom?

CHALLENGE#1:  Using the built in or added accessibility functions in your device to:

  1. Launch, compose & send message without hands (only headstick and/or voice)
  2. Launch, compose & save document without hands (only headstick and/or voice)
  3. Do the above blindfolded (may use hands)

CHALLENGE#2:  Create a short video (20-30 seconds) with Closed Captions. Post to YouTube or similar site.

CHALLENGE#3:  Follow up your own interest in one of these topics. Be able to share the deeper story that you learned.

What do the images above show you about disabilities?

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Exemplars (try for TED or other talks, then photos, then articles/Wikipedia, etc: