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Assistive Technology

Assistive technology is generally defined as any equipment that is helpful for someone with a disability. For example, I wear prescription eyeglasses, which help me compensate for being nearsighted. Other people may use wheelchairs, hearing aids, canes, and a host of other devices that help them with their disability. These devices are the most common types of assistive technology, but there are far more unusual products available.

Completely blind individuals may use screenreaders (programs that read a computer screen's contents aloud and speak each key typed); talking watches, calculators, and other speaking devices; Braille typewriters and printers; writing guides, and cooking aids.

People with limited or low vision often use many types of magnifiers, including CCTVs and head-mount video systems; large-print books, watches, and clocks; high-visibility pens and dark-line paper; task lamps, glare filters, and shades; and screen magnification programs (that magnify a portion of the screen image up to 20×).

For someone with a hearing impairment, there are assistive listening systems that work with a hearing aid, special telephones, telecommunication devices for the deaf (TDDs), vibrating alarm clocks, and doorbells that flash a light instead of ringing.

A physically impaired person may use scanning, code entry, or voice-input systems to access a computer; keyboards that are small, large, one-handed, and even onscreen types (see Figure 7); dressing, eating, and bathing aids; mouse alternatives such as trackballs, touchpads, and eyegaze devices; word prediction programs (used to increase the effective rate of typing); special switches of many different types; special chairs, workstations, braces and supports; typing and writing aids; and headwands or mouthsticks (a lightweight wand held by the teeth for typing).

People who cannot speak may use augmentative communications devices as their voice. This type of equipment may be controlled by using a keyboard, touch screen, or special switch to scan through preprogrammed phrases such as, "I'd like to eat lunch now."

Assistive technology isn't just equipment for people with disabilities; it's equipment that everyone may need to use at some point in his or her life. The symptoms of old age are very similar to common disabilities.

-- D.L.

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