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"Assistive computer technology"
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Smart and intelligent systems : the human elements in artificial intelligence, robotics, and cybersecurity
\"This book is perfect for engineering students in data sciences, artificial intelligence, practitioners at all levels in the field of human factors and ergonomics, systems engineering, computer science, software engineering and robotics\"-- Provided by publisher.
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Giving voice : mobile communication, disability, and inequality
How communication technologies meant to empower people with speech disorders-to give voice to the voiceless-are still subject to disempowering structural inequalities.Mobile technologies are often hailed as a way to \"give voice to the voiceless.\" Behind the praise, though, are beliefs about technology as a gateway to opportunity and voice as a metaphor for agency and self-representation. In Giving Voice, Meryl Alper explores these assumptions by looking closely at one such case-the use of the Apple iPad and mobile app Proloquo2Go, which converts icons and text into synthetic speech, by children with disabilities (including autism and cerebral palsy) and their families. She finds that despite claims to empowerment, the hardware and software are still subject to disempowering structural inequalities. Views of technology as a great equalizer, she illustrates, rarely account for all the ways that culture, law, policy, and even technology itself can reinforce disparity, particularly for those with disabilities.Alper explores, among other things, alternative understandings of voice, the surprising sociotechnical importance of the iPad case, and convergences and divergences in the lives of parents across class. She shows that working-class and low-income parents understand the app and other communication technologies differently from upper- and middle-class parents, and that the institutional ecosystem reflects a bias toward those more privileged.Handing someone a talking tablet computer does not in itself give that person a voice. Alper finds that the ability to mobilize social, economic, and cultural capital shapes the extent to which individuals can not only speak but be heard.
eBook
Innovative technologies to benefit children on the autism spectrum
\"This book brings together relevant theoretical frameworks and empirical research concerning the emerging technologies that benefit individuals living with autism\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
Making Computers Accessible
The revolution in accessible computer technology was fueled by disability activism, the interactive nature of personal computers, and changing public policy.
In 1974, not long after developing the first universal optical character recognition technology, Raymond Kurzweil struck up a conversation with a blind man on a flight. Kurzweil explained that he was searching for a use for his new software. The blind man expressed interest: One of the frustrating obstacles that blind people grappled with, he said, was that no computer program could translate text into speech. Inspired by this chance meeting, Kurzweil decided that he must put his new innovation to work to \"overcome this principal handicap of blindness.\" By 1976, he had built a working prototype, which he dubbed the Kurzweil Reading Machine.
This type of innovation demonstrated the possibilities of computers to dramatically improve the lives of people living with disabilities. In Making Computers Accessible, Elizabeth R. Petrick tells the compelling story of how computer engineers and corporations gradually became aware of the need to make computers accessible for all people. Motivated by user feedback and prompted by legislation such as the Americans with Disabilities Act, which offered the promise of equal rights via technological accommodation, companies developed sophisticated computerized devices and software to bridge the accessibility gap.
People with disabilities, Petrick argues, are paradigmatic computer users, demonstrating the personal computer's potential to augment human abilities and provide for new forms of social, professional, and political participation. Bridging the history of technology, science and technology studies, and disability studies, this book traces the psychological, cultural, and economic evolution of a consumer culture aimed at individuals with disabilities, who increasingly rely on personal computers to make their lives richer and more interconnected.
eBook
Internet of things and smart environments : assistive technologies for disability, dementia, and aging
This work is focused on the Internet of Things (IoT) services and smart environments that can be of assistance to the elderly and individuals living with dementia or some sensory impairment. The book outlines the requirements of the systems that aim to furnish some digital sensory or cognitive assistance to the individuals and their caregivers. The book covers the important evolutions of the IoT, the sensors, actuators, wireless communication and pervasive computing systems, and other enabling technologies that power up this megatrend infrastructure. The use of the IoT-based systems in improving the conventional assistive technologies and provisions of ambient assisted living are also covered.
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Ensuring Digital Accessibility Through Process and Policy
Ensuring Digital Accessibility through Process and Policy provides readers with a must-have resource to digital accessibility from both a technical and policy perspective. Inaccessible digital interfaces and content often lead to forms of societal discrimination that may be illegal under various laws. This book is unique in that it provides a multi-disciplinary understanding of digital accessibility. The book discusses the history of accessible computing, an understanding of why digital accessibility is socially and legally important, and provides both technical details (interface standards, evaluation methods) and legal details (laws, lawsuits, and regulations). The book provides real-world examples throughout, highlighting organizations that are doing an effective job with providing equal access to digital information for people with disabilities. This isn’t a book strictly about interface design, nor is it a book strictly about law. For people who are charged with implementing accessible technology and content, this book will serve as a one-stop guide to understanding digital accessibility, offering an overview of current laws, regulations, technical standards, evaluation techniques, as well as best practices and suggestions for implementing solutions and monitoring for compliance. This combination of skills from the three authors—law, technical, and research, with experience in both corporate, government, and educational settings, is unique to this book, and does not exist in any other book about any aspect of IT accessibility. The authors’ combination of skills marks a unique and valuable perspective, and provides insider knowledge on current best practices, corporate policies, and technical instructions. Together, we can ensure that the world of digital information is open to all users.Learn about the societal and organizational benefits of making information technology accessible for people with disabilitiesUnderstand the interface guidelines, accessibility evaluation methods, and compliance monitoring techniques, needed to ensure accessible content and technologyUnderstand the various laws and regulations that require accessible technologyLearn from case studies of organizations that are successfully implementing accessibility in their technologies and digital content
eBook
Getting IT : using information technology to empower people with communication difficulties
Information technology (IT) has great potential to be an effective and empowering means of communication for people with communication difficulties. Getting IT explores how IT can help such people increase their independence, communicate in more direct ways and express themselves as part of society.
Authors Dinah Murray and Ann Aspinall examine common problems faced by people with learning and communication difficulties - being judged on appearances, encountering impatience from communication partners, problems identifying and understanding key information and difficulties communicating decisions. They show how IT can help solve these problems: for example internet search tools for accessing information at home, typing and email as socially neutral, universally acceptable modes of expression, anonymous, non-judgmental internet chatrooms and discussion forums. Three central case studies illustrate how IT improved the lives of Kumar who is on the autism spectrum, Marie who has dementia and Irene who is almost completely nonverbal. The book also provides practical guidance on how to use common IT programs including Powerpoint and gives an overview of the technology available for people with specific difficulties. Useful resources and organisations are supplied at the end of the book.
Getting IT shows the power of IT to help people with communication difficulties satisfy the universal human need to communicate. This book will inspire carers, teachers, psychologists, parents and other professionals to use IT with people with communication difficulties, and will expand the skills and knowledge of those who already do.
eBook
Ambient integrated robotics : automation and robotic technologies for maintenance, assistance, and service
\"The new research field of Ambient/Active Assisted Living (AAL) is quickly evolving. Ambient Integrated Robotics provides an easy-to-understand medical perspective to architects, designers, and engineers, bridging the different disciplines and showing how they fuse together to create the future of AAL technology. Using robotics as an example, the book illustrates how embedding its subsystems results in unique ambient technology that can be used to help people, particularly in adapting to the needs of the unwell and elderly populations. You will be provided with the knowledge and tools to contribute to the future of AAL. The Cambridge Handbooks on Construction Robotics series gives professionals, researchers, lecturers, and students basic conceptual and technical skills and strategies to manage, research, or teach the implementation of advanced automation, and robot-technology-based processes and technologies in construction. Books discuss progress in robot systems theory and demonstrates their integration using real applications and projections\"-- Provided by publisher.
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Empowering Students and Maximising Inclusiveness and Equality Through ICT
Access to and participation in education are critical issues in contemporary South Africa. Awareness of inclusiveness and equality is not recent, having possibly first been described in the dawn of the millennium by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Drawing from the current framings in the SADC education systems the contributors argue that ICT has a key role to play in transformation, Africanisation and decolonisation of education. Contributors are: Skye Adams, Najma Agherdien, Andrew Crouch, Andries Du Plessis, Nazira Hoosen, Katijah Khoza-Shangase, Mhulaheni Maguvhe, Khetsiwe Masuku, Sharon Moonsamy, Munyane Mophosho, Nomfundo Moroe, Ramashego Shila Mphahlele, Ndileleni Mudzielwana, Shonisani Mulovhedzi, Anniah Mupawose, Mapula Ngoepe, Moshe Phoshoko, Dhanashree Pillay, Roshni Pillay, Ben Sebothoma and Susan Thuketana.
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