INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY FOR THE DISABLED

[Music] hello oh yes thank yes we have it um you can have it ready by these everyday jobs are familiar to all of us in fact we take them for granted but there are a number of people who find these simple tasks a challenge they are the severely disabled for many people their handicaps have meant either no job or employment that underrates their ability but it is the new technology feared by many ordinary workers as a threat to their jobs that will be the future for the [Music] disabled this short film shows a normal office procedure in fact the concept and creation of a computer program but each phase of the operation is carried out by a disabled person using Information Technology work constantly moves outside the office jobs like the conception and overall design of a computer program are well suited to places where colleagues and the telephone do not constantly interrupt until recently working away from the office was very difficult for many disabled people but technology is changing all that this small unit can be operated by people with one hand or by those with limited movement each character is made up from a combination of key strokes with the machine memorizing the composed t next when back at the office the material can be displayed on a TV screen passed to a secretary or printed the micro writer researched and manufactured in the UK has been a breakthrough for many children and adults Bri C Amsterdam flight V 822 now boarding G 9 a blind people also have some difficulty with portable equipment we've got plenty of time we might as well have a look at Terry's stuff on uh LSM although there is laborious hand punch equipment this electron portable personal information system has put blind people well ahead in the field of Information Technology and then she then she put some Sterling prices in yeah what I well she started off the US market price yeah and then she added oned on on everything get here it is being used by a senior civil servant with one foot in Brussels and the other in London this unit the versel made in the USA operates like a simple word processor allowing written material to be typed in Braille corrected and then stored on a high quality cassette the same unit can also be used for audio recording as a braille computer terminal and as a means of translating Braille straight into print you just attach a printer in fact it's an early example of the electronic briefcase of the future Russell FL 868 now boing gate number 12 [Music] TOS who isn't aware of frustration with the telephone but what about not being able to hear or talk a UK company has developed this deaf communicating terminal for use with the telephone messages are communicated in text this is very simple replacing other more combersome attempts of the same thing already an emergency 999 service has been offered to users of this telephone it must be a great comfort to domestic users especially where all adult members of a household are deaf and dumb the phone message about the program requirement has been delivered and it is up to the programmer to issue the correct instructions to the computer Jeff has been a programmer for some years now his nose plays the most important part typing with your nose can be slow there are also difficulties with pressing two keys at once for example getting a capital letter Essex University looked at Jeff's problems and then produced this terminal it looks just like an ordinary microcomputer which it is but the keyboard has been modified there is no more nose stretching and a word store has been added so that Jeff can type a word or phrase at one stroke this terminal the mate is mainly softwar driven making it very adaptable for different professions and for for school use so as to make computer programs easy to use some user instructions have to be typed Leslie works for BP she is one of the few people in this country to have a typewriter that talks IBM produced this unit for blind word processing operators the typewriter reads in words what Leslie has just typed horse that's not right and the mistake is corrected this program enables aely handicap to in fact companies doing security work have found an advantage in blind staff they can type without using paper documentation for computer programs has to be right so it has to be proof R although she too is blind Hazel will be able to perform that task without any difficulty here she is reading another printed document with the ease of a cited person the small camera in the right hand is moved across the page while the letter shapes can be felt on the index finger of the left hand to be able to read by Touch without the need to translate it into Braille is a great boom now that Hazel has moved her hand you can see the pins forming the letter shapes the Opticon was designed in the USA by the father of a blind girl who didn't want to send his daughter to a distant boarding school in 1970 the reader was a major breakthrough and is still the only way blind people can read printed material without help this small machine means a great deal to many blind people but not too far away is the next Generation a portable machine that speaks but while machines are being given voices there remain many people who can't talk the disability does doesn't stop them doing worthwhile jobs but there are times when communication with colleagues is difficult splink could help here splink was originally developed in the UK by a doctor for his stroke patients it uses an ordinary TV and a special large keyboard in the memory of the keyboard is stored a large vocabulary of words and phrases which can be selected by pressing the appropriate key I guess what find the next page to find out what all computer programs have to be tested and here as an expert Joanne who is unable to talk and has very little controllable movement is using the experimental Mavis system which was researched and developed at the national physical laboratory she is able by using her special switches to select items from a matrix at the bottom of the screen push push it hard it's patient yes I know you do moving Matrix selection is widely accepted by the severely disabled good now this one good girl now again special switches adapted to each individual are used to drive a pointer one two well done no this one is that's it good go push the switch on the left moves the pointer across the screen while the one on the Right Moves it down a second flick of the left hand switch then selects the items push out come on good go pretty good this is one of the few things she can use independently mommy's watching she's just there look by the desk watching wants to see you do forgot how to do it I tell you what listen listen I don't remember how it works you going to show me there are also other projects developing educational toys turtle is a new approach to drawing [Music] the computer-driven turtle is fun for disabled and non-disabled alike it's often used to introduce computer technology to primary school children or to help develop motor coordination skills for the disabled child here it is being programmed to draw a [Music] square [Music] what boy can resist a toy train set but with Joan as the engine driver these two are not going to get much of a look in this train like many other electrical and mechanical appliances around the house can be controlled using Mavis the conventional electromechanical systems of the past have been very inflexible but information technology will change all that making it easy to adapt a machine for a wide range of disabilities it's well done you given a little more understanding of the problems of disability and the development needs of this type of equipment the disabled person of the future will have far less handicap and be thankful for information [Music] technology a for