ECE 480 Presentation of Universal Design and Assistive Technology

Question 1

• What is the most important training course and learned skill for a design engineer

AIAA Design Engineering Surveyconducted this past November

• Most important courseRespondents were asked to name the one course they

believed to be most important in learning the skills required to be a design engineer. Nearly all of the responses were engineering department courses, labs or projects - half included the word "design" in the course name.

• Most important skill When asked, 83% of all participating design engineers

agree that greater practical experience from their undergraduate training would have better prepared them for their first engineering job.

Question 2

• As a design engineer, how much of an impact do my decisions make.

"The computer programmer is a creator of universes for which he alone is the lawgiver..... No playwright, no stage director, no emperor, however powerful, has ever exercised such absolute authority to arrange a stage or field of battle and to command such unswervingly dutiful actors or troops."

Joseph Weisenbaum, Computer Power and Human Reason

Poor design is a waste of time

• One employment lifetime = 40 hours * 49 weeks *40 years = 78,400 person hours

• Efficient appliance saves user 25 seconds (three times a day. Life of appliance is 5 years. 1 Million of these appliances were sold.

• 25/3600 Hours * 3 Times/day *365 days *5 years * 1 million appliances = 38,020,833 person hours

• = the working lives of 485 people• =19,398 years

Question 3

• Why is it important to consider the needs of people with disabilities in designing .

• How many people are affected by disabilities?

• According to HalfthePlanet Foundation “The disability community includes 150 million people within the U.S. One-half the population are touched by disabilities in some way, either directly or through close ties to someone they know with a disability. With an ever-growing aging population, the universe of people with disabilities also continues to grow.”

Examples of disabilities include:

• blind, partially sighted, mobility disabilities, limited strength, hard of hearing, deaf, color blind, dyslexic, learning disabled, deaf blind, speech disability, cerebral palsy, language disability, etc.

• Accessibility-related agencies and acts

• Section 508Access Board

• Department of Justice

• Federal Communication Commission FCC

• Americans with Disabilities Act ADA

• U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

• W3C World Wide Web Consortium

You've heard it: the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) creates Web standards. W3C's mission is to lead the Web to its full potential, which it does by developing technologies (specifications, guidelines, software, and tools) that will create a forum for information, commerce, inspiration, independent thought, and collective understanding.

http://www.w3.org

Question 4

• Do engineers in large corporations depend on administrators and usability teams to help them make their designs accessible?

Assistive Technology and its know how overcomes barriers and directs everyone’s path to a more productive future

• Each of the three 8300+ pound satellite costs roughly $100 million and is launched into orbit by a three-stage Russian-built Proton rocket from Kazakhstan, for another $100 million each, not including insurance. With three satellites in orbit and one spare on the ground for emergencies, Sirius has invested over $700 million on just the space segment of the system, not including ground stations.

• Serial data rate is approximately 7.5 Mbits/s. including forward-error-correction coding (Reed-Solomon outer code and convolutional inner code) and encryption, we're left with an audio bit stream of about 4.4 Mbits/s. This 4.4-Mbit/s bit stream has 100 channels, averaging 44 kHz each

A team of 100 designers worked on the horrifically complex radio receiver chip set.

100 channel Sirius receiver

Total cost for Sirius system so far is about $2 billion

1929 Atwater Kent

In what way is the Atwater Kent better?Ignorance created a barrier

PDA’s need to be accessible

Non talking With voice synthesis

Question 5

• Where is technology headed?

“Computers will achieve the memory capacity and computing speed of the human brain by

around the year 2020”

“Once a computer achieves a human level of intelligence, it will roar past it.”

“By the year 2029 sensory enhancement devices will be used by most of the population”

Ray Kurzweil, The Age of Spiritual Machines

Where is this machine intelligence taking us?

Question 6

• What are our challenges in designing accessible products?

Most Challenging Product DesignFeatures

• Human-machine interface is often the weakest link

• Usability and accessibility must be considered early in the design process

• A diverse population of users needs to be considered

• Superior technology is designed to easily accept alternative interface options

Many other resources are available for help in making your products

accessible

• http://trace.wisc.edu/world/ Designing a More Usable World

• Universal Design Handbookwith CD-ROMedited by Wolfgang Preiser and Elaine Ostroff

Almost all products can be designed better with knowledge of Assistive Technology, Universal Design, and

Usability testing• More user friendly• Ergonomic• Wider market potential• Legal fulfillment• Advertises image of high moral standard• Contains accessible product instructions

and documentation.

Question 7What Is Universal Design?

• Universal design means products and buildings that are accessible and usable by everyone, including people with disabilities.

Edward Steinfeld, Professor of Architecture, Director, Center for Inclusive Design & Environmental Access, State University of New York at Buffalo.

Universal Design Principles

• Principle 1 Equitable useThe design is useful and marketable to people with diverse abilities.

Guidelines:

• Provide the same means of use for all users: identical whenever possible; equivalent when not.

• * Avoid segregating or stigmatizing any users.

• * Provisions for privacy, security, and safety should be equally available to all users.

• * Make the design appealing to all users.  

PRINCIPLE TWO: Flexibility in UseThe design accommodates a wide range of individual preferences and

abilities.

• Guidelines:

• 2a. Provide choice in methods of use.

• 2b. Accommodate right- or left-handed access and use.

• 2c. Facilitate the user's accuracy and precision.

• 2d. Provide adaptability to the user's pace.

PRINCIPLE THREE: Simple and Intuitive UseUse of the design is easy to understand, regardless of the user's

experience, knowledge, language skills, or current concentration level.

• Guidelines:

• 3a. Eliminate unnecessary complexity.• 3b. Be consistent with user expectations and intuition.• 3c. Accommodate a wide range of literacy and language skills.• 3d. Arrange information consistent with its importance.• 3e. Provide effective prompting and feedback during and after task completion.

PRINCIPLE FOUR: Perceptible InformationThe design communicates necessary information effectively to the user,

regardless of ambient conditions or the user's sensory abilities

.

Guidelines:

4a. Use different modes (pictorial, verbal, tactile) for redundant presentation of essential information.4b. Provide adequate contrast between essential information and its surroundings.4c. Maximize "legibility" of essential information.4d. Differentiate elements in ways that can be described (i.e., make it easy to give instructions or directions).4e. Provide compatibility with a variety of techniques or devices used by people with sensory limitations.

PRINCIPLE FIVE: Tolerance for ErrorThe design minimizes hazards and the adverse consequences

of accidental or unintended actions.

Guidelines:

5a. Arrange elements to minimize hazards and errors: most used elements, most accessible; hazardous elements eliminated, isolated, or shielded.5b. Provide warnings of hazards and errors.5c. Provide fail safe features.5d. Discourage unconscious action in tasks that require vigilance.

PRINCIPLE SIX: Low Physical EffortThe design can be used efficiently and comfortably and with

a minimum of fatigue

Guidelines:

6a. Allow user to maintain a neutral body position.6b. Use reasonable operating forces.6c. Minimize repetitive actions.6d. Minimize sustained physical effort.

Click Here

Click for Help

PRINCIPLE SEVEN: Size and Space for Approach and Use

Appropriate size and space is provided for approach, reach, manipulation, and use regardless of user's body size, posture,

or mobility.

Guidelines:

7a. Provide a clear line of sight to important elements for any seated or standing user.7b. Make reach to all components comfortable for any seated or standing user.7c. Accommodate variations in hand and grip size.7d. Provide adequate space for the use of assistive devices or personal assistance.

Universally designed documentation and web pages1. Installation instructions2. User manuals3. Service manuals4. Internet (html) documentation5. Video / multimedia guides6. Interactive diagnostic computer software

Available in multiple formatsEtextAudio/videoPictures and wordsTactile and BrailleAccessible html (see W3C)

Question 8

• What are some examples of universal designed products?

Phonoautograph

LP record

Development of the voice synthesizer

Dennis KlattCreator of an Electronic Model of the vocal tract and DecTalk voice

At the Speech Communication Group of the Research Laboratory of Electronics

Jacuzzi Brothers

T9

ABC DEF GHI JKL MNO PQRS TUV WXYZ

Delete

Examples of assistive technology designs that led to new inventions

• Phonoautograph• A phonautograph was a device for converting sound into visible traces so the deaf can see the sound.• Telephone• Invented while pursuing the phonautograph mentioned above.• Text Scanners and OCR software• Kurzweil Reading Machine was invented for the blind to be able to read• LP record • “Phonograph books” for the blind• Jacuzzi• Originally invented to help improve motorically disabled.• Carbon Paper• Invented to aid the blind in writing and typing • http://trace.wisc.edu/world/ Designing a More Usable World• Text to speech products• Closed-captioned television, created to help the deaf• Curb cuts• large-handled can openers• Auto PC, an in-car voice control• Searchable PDF documents• Browsers such as (www.seti-search.com)

Question 9What is Assistive Technology?

• Adaptive technology? Enabling technology? Accommodating technology? Access Technology? Liberating technology? Augmentative technology? Empowering technology?

• ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY DEFINED In the broadest sense, assistive technology is any technology which enables someone to do something they otherwise couldn't

MSU RCPD ( Resource Center for Persons with Disabilities)

• JAWS for Windows, the world's premier screen reader software http://www.hj.com/Index.html

• Started by Ted Henter, a 27-year old mechanical engineer and one of the world's top ten motorcycle racers who was involved in an automobile accident that left him blind.

• JAWS (Job Access With Speech)

Zoomtext screen magnification software

CCTV

Braille Embossers and tactile printers

Talking tactile maps

Scanning and reading systems

Adjustable workstations for easy wheelchair access

Bob Blanchard MSU Student uses Kurzweil 3000 and his computer to navigate and read his course material on line.

Kurzweil 3000 highlights text as it reads

• Schrödinger equation can be considered as the limiting case of a relativistically invariant wave equation when the velocity of light goes to infinity. Therefore it is not particularly surprising that an explicitly non-local description such as the transactional model may have intrinsic inconsistencies with the Schrödinger equation and may require certain properties of relativistically invariant wave equations.

relativistically

with the Schrödinger equation and may require certain properties of relativistically invariant wave equations

• The Schrödinger Equation •   In 1925, Erwin Schrödinger and Werner Heisenberg

independently developed the new quantum theory. Schrödinger's method involves partial differential equations, whereas Heisenberg's method employs matrices; however, a year later the two methods were shown to be mathematically equivalent. Most textbooks begin with Schrödinger's equation, since it seems to have a better physical interpretation via the classical wave equation. Indeed, the Schrödinger equation can be viewed as a form of the wave equation applied to matter waves.

Kurzweil 3000 defines words on command

Question 10• What kind of new assistive technology is

being created today.

• Often new innovative developments are discovered in this process.?

Commercially available augmentative communication device(VOCA) Voice Output Communication Aid

Special inputDevices

CUSTOM VOCA SYSTEM

Jim Renuk demonstrates method of access to the web

Jim uses an infrared transmitter and receiver to communicate with his desktop system

Desktop IR receiver IR Transmitter on wheelchair