Join the Open Innovation Portal, launched by the U.S. Department of Education, to identify, improve, and implement innovative solutions to educational challenges. Make sure that children with disabilities, their teachers, and assistive technology solutions are part of the conversation.
Speak up for accessible e-health records! Post your comments by March 15 and ensure that this new federal initiative hears from the accessibility community.
NCTI seeks proposals for collaborative research of innovative and emerging assistive technologies that provide greater access for students with disabilities. Up to four awards of $20,000 will be made in 2010. Collaborative teams must secure matching funds. NCTI is committed to fostering new talent in the field of educational and assistive technology. We strongly encourage graduate students teams to apply. See the full RFP for more details on eligibility and requirements. See previous awards for the type of work we fund. Questions? See the Frequently Asked Questions page or contact us at NCTI@air.org.
I continue to write notes on paper with a black felt tip pen, though I’ll probably never read them. I long ago lost the ability to read my own handwriting. I continue to write this way largely out of habit. I like to think that the gesture of writing helps me remember something of what is written. After watching this demonstration of SixthSense, especially the scene in which Post-It notes are transcribed into words on the computer, I think what I do could be more than futile gestures.
I’ve been imagining a functional computer display, including the keyboard, as large as a wall where I could stand and work. I’d rebuild my workspace for a wall like that..
At TEDIndia, Pranav Mistry demos several tools that help the physical world interact with the world of data — including a deep look at his SixthSense device and a new, paradigm-shifting paper “laptop.” In an onstage Q&A, Mistry says he’ll open-source the software behind SixthSense, to open its possibilities to all.
Pranav Mistry is the inventor of SixthSense, a wearable device that enables new interactions between the real world and the world of data.
Yorick Wilks is a researcher with the Companions Project. He envisions a future with “digital companions” (don’t call them robots) who have long and memorable conversations with us — knowing our wants and foibles, getting things done, telling us jokes, maybe even laughing at the jokes we tell over and over again.
According to the Companions Project:
This will be an agent or ‘presence’ that stays with the user for long periods of time, developing a relationship and ‘knowing’ its owners preferences and wishes. It will communicate with the user primarily by using and understanding speech.
Yorick Wilks talked about the concept of digital companions on Radio Berkman, and a longer version of his Berkman lecture is available as a video.
I’ve written elsewhere about what I desire in a virtual assistant. I want one that can find and read anything to me, breaking down every barrier to accessibility. It would know as much as I do, if not more, about hacking text and code. It would know when to take out those noxious flashing scripts before I ever arrive at a web page. It would remember the floes and eddies of my attention. And unlike that stupid Microsoft wizard, it wouldn’t make me waste time trying to undo its unwanted prescience. Is that too much to ask? It’s certainly part of what I mean by re-imagining accessibility.
I was asked to speak on a panel last week that discussed the practitioner’s perspective on providing accessible educational technologies for learning with disabilities. I wasn’t sure how to translate my experience into the role of “practitioner” – disability is not my day job – then I remembered an essay I wrote 15 years ago that explained how my disability is my practice. There wasn’t enough time on the panel to explain this idea in detail, so I’ve revised the essay and posted it in the Fair Use Lab. Disability as Praxis draws on Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Paulo Freire’s influential 1973 book on literacy and liberation, to understand how the adaptations made and accommodations negotiated by people with disabilities represent a significant form of creative work and cultural production. The essay remains one of my clearest statements of what I know and believe about living with a disability.
The Ohio Secretary of State’s office is looking for people with disabilities to participate in a training video designed to educate poll workers about people with disabilities, how to accommodate voters with disabilities at polling locations, proper assistance, proper etiquette, accessibility at polling locations and a variety of other awareness information regarding the disability community. According to Brett Harbage, ADA coordinator in the Secretary of State’s office:
Our goal is to have people with various types of disabilities participate in this video to show poll workers a large cross section of disabilities that maybe coming to vote at polling locations during any given election.
The participation level in the video could vary from very short statements, to more involved dialogue, to being interviewed about your disability and/or explaining what accommodations/assistance you might need to cast your ballot on election day. This could all depend on your comfort level.
If you or someone you know is interested in participating in this video, please contact Brett Harbage by Dec. 12, 2009 at (614) 387-6039 or via email at bharbage@sos.state.oh.us for more information.
Exploring transformation through fair use -- particularly the transformative promise of accessible technology for people with disabilities -- is the goal of the Fair Use Lab. Shepard Fairey’s Barack Obama/"Hope” poster is the FULAB’s icon. What does “Hope” have to do with accessibility? Read more, stay tuned, and join the conversation!
I was asked to speak on a panel last week that discussed the practitioner’s perspective on providing accessible educational technologies for learning with disabilities. I wasn’t sure how to translate my experience into the role of “practitioner” – disability is not my day job – then I remembered an essay I wrote 15 years ago that explained how my disability is my practice. There wasn’t enough time on the panel to explain this idea in detail, so I’ve revised the essay and posted it in the Fair Use Lab. ![Shepard Fairey’s “Barack Obama/Hope” image went viral during the 2008 election. Then controversy about the image’s source transformed it into the poster child for fair use in the public debate over copyright and free culture. Now FULAB takes “Hope” as its icon [Image source: Wikipedia]](http://fairuselab.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/shepard_fairey_hope_2008.jpg "shepard_fairey_hope_2008")
