 |
August 1997 Hearings on Assistive Technology |
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
August 1997 Hearings on Assistive Technology |
| |
|
|
|
|
Written Testimony of
Katherine D. Seelman, Ph.D.
Director
National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research
Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services
U. S. Department of Education
on
Meeting the Needs of People with Disabilities Through Federal Technology Transfer
to
United States House of Representatives
Committee on Science
Subcommittee on Technology
Tuesday, July 15, 1997
2:00 p.m.
2318 Rayburn House Office Building
(Exhibits 2168 Rayburn)
Introduction
Chairwoman Morella and members of the Subcommittee on Technology, my name is Katherine D. Seelman. I bring you greetings from the Secretary of Education, Richard Riley, and the Assistant Secretary of the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, Judy Heumann. I am the director of the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR), and chair of the Interagency Committee on Disability Research (ICDR). I would like to express my appreciation for your leadership in technology transfer, and for inviting me to testify before you today at this hearing on Meeting the Needs of People with Disabilities Through Federal Technology Transfer. I am testifying on the prospects for potential collaboration between NIDRR and the Federal Laboratories in the area of assistive technology.
The importance of assistive technology to disabled people is summarized in the following quotation:
"For Americans without disabilities, technology makes things easier. For Americans with disabilities, technology makes things possible." (From Study on the Financing of Assistive Technology Devices and Services for Individuals with Disabilities, National Council on Disability, March 1993)
Activities of life that many of us take for granted, such as moving from place to place, may be impossible for someone with paralysis. However, the addition of assistive technology, in this case a wheelchair, makes the impossible become possible. The widely recognized symbol of disability, that can be seen everywhere, clearly reflects this concept: a person using a wheelchair (assistive technology) now has the possibility of moving from place to place independently.
NIDRR Overview
NIDRR is located in the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) in the Department of Education. The purpose of NIDRR is to support rehabilitation research and the use of such research to improve the lives of individuals with physical and mental disabilities, especially those with severe disabilities. We are the lead federal agency in research, development, and deployment of assistive technology. We support a comprehensive program of rehabilitation research at a level of about $70,000,000 per year. NIDRR's research activities most relevant to the hearing today are the sixteen Rehabilitation Engineering Research Centers (RERCs). We also support related work through Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) contracts and through discrete research grant projects. The Program Directory for the research supported by NIDRR is available on the World Wide Web at:
http://www.naric.com/naric/nidrr96
NIDRR administers a $36,000,000 effort in assistive technology deployment authorized by The Technology-Related Assistance for Individuals with Disabilities Act (PL 100-407). There are Tech Act Programs in all 50 states.
Another one of my responsibilities as Director of NIDRR is chairing the ICDR, which is charged with promoting coordination and cooperation among Federal departments and agencies conducting rehabilitation research. The ICDR's Technology Subcommittee is actively working to promote and coordinate these activities.
NIDRR's community of interest includes individuals with disabilities and their families, researchers, rehabilitation service providers, and manufacturers and distributors of assistive technology across the nation.
One of NIDRR's main areas of focus is research in the application of engineering and technology to assure equality of opportunity, full participation, independent living, and economic self-sufficiency for individuals with disabilities. Some examples of NIDRR's past accomplishments through its Rehabilitation Engineering Research Centers include working with Microsoft to include accessibility features in Windows '95, and contributing substantially to launching the now thriving augmentative communication device industry. Mr. Hersberger, of the Prentke Romich Company, will also testify today and tell you more about augmentative communication devices, which allow individuals who cannot speak to communicate vocally.
Assistive Technology Today
What assistive technology is in use today? A definition of assistive technology is attached, but I would like to give a few specific examples. In addition to the wheelchair and augmentative communication devices mentioned earlier, assistive technology includes relatively simple devices, such as canes and walking sticks, as well as more technologically sophisticated devices such as digitally programmable hearing aids, voice input/output computers, artificial legs and hands made of space-age materials, and perhaps someday, a visual prosthesis. I hope you saw some of the exhibits prior to the hearing, or will visit them afterward.
There is a broad spectrum of assistive technology. At one end of the continuum are devices used by relatively small numbers of individuals with disabilities. At the opposite end of the spectrum are devices used by large numbers of people, both disabled and non-disabled.
Those pieces of assistive technology that are specialized for use by individuals with a particular disability are sometimes called "orphan devices". Orphan devices are disability specific devices that are used only by a small number of individuals with disabilities. These devices are designed with the concept of restoring a physical function, or retrofitting a commercially available piece of equipment so that someone with a disability can use it. An example of an orphan device is a device used by an individual who is both deaf and blind, in which a doorbell activates one or more fans to alert the individual when a visitor is at the door.
Currently, an estimated 15.6 million people in the US either use some type of specialized assistive technology or have reported they would benefit if they did use assistive technology (LaPlante et al, Technology and Disability, vol 6, pp. 17-28, 1997).
At the opposite end of the spectrum are devices that have been developed through the process of "Universal Design". In this process, devices for the mass market have accessibility features built in at the front end, so that virtually anyone can use them. A well-known example of this would be the inclusion of the closed-caption decoder in all television sets, making receipt of captioned broadcasting available to millions for only pennies per set. Captioned broadcasts are useful not only for deaf and hard-of-hearing persons, but for persons learning to read English and all persons in noisy areas such as airports and restaurants. Another example is the information kiosk that provides the same information in both visual and auditory formats. Universal technology is also represented by ramps that can be used by both individuals in wheelchairs and persons pushing baby strollers, and by lever style handles that make opening doors and turning faucets easier for all individuals. The universal approach typifies the concept of "fixing" the environment. Mr. Jacobs will be discussing Universal Design in his testimony today.
It is more difficult to obtain solid estimates of the market sizes and user populations of universally designed technology.
Market And Demographic Trends
Looking to the future, population trends as well as trends in technological developments will require attention. Massive and pervasive changes in mainstream technology will create not only new opportunities, but also new barriers. For example, blind people who work with computers may find themselves no longer able to perform their jobs if they cannot use new computer systems that are based heavily on graphical icons.
With respect to trends in the globalization of technology, and the concomitant rapid economic changes, many experts believe that the U.S. and international markets for assistive technology will:
- experience significant growth in the years ahead,
- be very receptive to the introduction of new devices,
- need to respond to consumer demand for improvements to the quality of
- existing assistive technology devices, and
- experience increasing competition.
At present, there are approximately 2,500 companies, the vast majority of them small, that produce assistive technology in the U.S. They are listed in ABLEDATA, a national assistive technology database developed with NIDRR support, available on the World Wide Web at:
http://www.abledata.com/index.htm
These companies constitute the core of an infrastructure to further the transfer of technological discoveries to assistive technology.
Demographic studies reveal the trend to the aging of the U.S. population, and that is a trend experienced by other industrialized nations. An older population has greater assistive technology needs than a younger population. Older Americans use assistive technology to prolong the time they can live independently in the community and to reduce the costs of long-term care.
Plans For The Future
Where will our country's future assistive technology come from? How will the United States respond to these changes and trends? This is what brings us to the main point of the hearings today--the ability of the Federal Laboratories to play a significant role in assistive technology development for the future. Together, NIDRR and the Federal Laboratories are looking for ways to bridge the gap between the high technologies within the Federal Laboratories, the opportunities for assistive technology development, and the needs of people with disabilities.
Based on past interactions with Federal Laboratories, researchers in NIDRR's Rehabilitation Engineering Research Centers have identified the need for better access to, and exchange of, information and expertise. While great strides have been made in cataloging the technological resources of the Federal Laboratories, the problem of describing vast amounts of extremely complex technology is, in itself, a daunting challenge.
We have experienced advances in our exchange of information between NIDRR constituents and the Federal Laboratories. For example, NIDRR has funded the Consumer Assistive Technology Transfer Network (CATN). The CATN is charged with increasing consumer involvement in assistive technology transfer by linking the fifty-six State programs funded under the Technology-Related Assistance for Individuals with Disabilities Act with the sixteen Rehabilitation Engineering Research Centers (RERCs), and the seven hundred Federal Laboratories nationwide. Interacting with CATN permits engineers, developers, and researchers to review new product inventions and problems submitted by consumers, and permits consumers to review the potential value of new technologies produced by engineers, developers, and researchers. More information about CATN can be obtained at
As a result of various CATN activities, the Federal Laboratory Consortium has funded assistive technology focus groups at NIDRR's Technology Transfer RERC. The purpose of these groups is to look at the possible relevance to users of various advances in assistive technology.
A model for future successful cooperation and partnership between NIDRR projects and the Federal Laboratories includes:
- continuing to work on information exchange,
- providing additional resources, in the form of engineering staff time, to seek out potential technology for transfer,
- conducting pilot projects or reciprocal exchanges of staff engineers and scientists between NIDRR's RERCs and the Federal Laboratories, and
- involving individuals with disabilities and individuals from minority backgrounds in technology transfer.
Conclusions
Congresswoman Morella, the Subcommittee on Technology of the House Committee on Science has an impressive record of fostering technology transfer. I hope that with your leadership, new ways can be found to expand our ability to work collaboratively to help the Federal Laboratories transfer their technology into the very important area of assistive technology, to the benefit of people with disabilities. Let me close by returning to a quote I used in the introduction:
"For Americans without disabilities, technology makes things easier. For Americans with disabilities, technology makes things possible."
For an individual with a disability, assistive technology can make possible what would otherwise have been impossible. Turning impossibilities into possibilities is perhaps one of the finest outcomes of technology transfer.
Definition of assistive technology
The term assistive technology device means any item, piece of equipment, or product system, whether acquired commercially, off-the-shelf, modified or customized, that is used to increase, maintain, or improve functional capabilities of individuals with disabilities (Excerpt PL 100-407).
Common Usage
Technologies used in education, rehabilitation, and independent living to help, change, or train are now commonly grouped into the generic term "assistive technology." People of all ages with physical, cognitive and communication disorders, or a combination of disabilities may benefit from the application of assistive technologies.
Examples
Interaction with subject matter and instructional materials
Computers with adaptive switches and keyboards that substitute for normal keyboard use or conventional handwriting; audio tape players, braille displays or print magnifiers for students who are blind or visually impaired.
Communication
Persons with speech and/or hearing disabilities are able to transmit and/or receive communication. Communication boards, speech synthesizers, modified typewriters, head pointers, text to voice software, voice to text software, and telecommunication devices for the deaf, text telephones, CCTV's.
Mobility and active movement
The use of electric or conventional wheelchairs for full body movement; modifications of vans for travel; crutches, canes and walkers for support and stability; or canes used by pedestrians who are blind or visually impaired.
Control of equipment
Switches for people who have limited control over voluntary movements can be activated by touch, sound, voice, light pointers, and movement of the body for computers, television, and home appliances.
Self-help skills devices that assist in daily living and independence skills: modified eating utensils, adapted books, pencil holders, page turners, dressing aids, and adapted personal hygiene aids.
Body support, alignment, and positioning
Adapted seating, standing tables, seat belts, braces, cushions and wedges to maintain posture, and devices for trunk alignment that assist people in maintaining body alignment and control so they can perform a range of daily tasks.
Modification of the work environment
Modifications of desks and work tables to accommodate wheelchairs, computer modifications for alternate input systems, "talking" instrument displays for the blind or visually impaired, and automatic door openers.
Leisure time, recreation activities, and appreciation of the arts
Devices include guide rails in bowling alleys for people who are blind, special prostheses that assist persons with amputations to participate in sports, computer decelerators that slow down arcade type games, and audio description for movies, sporting, and cultural events.
 Home |
 Newsletter |
 Calendar |
 Index |
 Contact |