	October 1997

Greg Smith's World

D. Greg Smith

(For a detailed description of Greg's tailored adaptive technologies read Don Spaeth's article in last month's Tapping Tech, "Thumbing the Information Highway")

The author can be contacted at greg1smith@aol.com.

The importance of bringing the web to people is immeasurable. Especially, the disabled who can use technology to its fullest capability. Expanding and building their horizons to extents that I can only describe as mind boggling. Example, I am learning to use my Liberator and computer everyday to explore new avenues of communicating, although sometimes I'm as slow as a wheelchair person climbing up Mt. Everest.

Every journey has to start someplace. Mine began at D. T. Watson where I received my high school diploma. I achieved this goal without the aid of any electronic voices or augmentative devices. Around nineteen eighty four while I was at Good Shepherd in Allentown Pennsylvania I began communicating with a Lightalker. In nineteen ninety four I moved to a new communication device, the Liberator. I needed a Liberator to meet my expanding needs as an augmentative communicator. This important part of our lives is constantly on some change which opens new highways of discovery.

I have always had a passion for creative writing and have taken a lot of classes on my own. Poetry is moving to me. Therefore, in order to pursue my passion I decided to tackle college and a degree. I am presently a student at Community College of Allegheny County - Boyce Campus. Like any other student, from around the world, I have assignments to complete, yesterday. Cliff notes just don't cut it. Connecting to the net seemed to be a logical move. Students since the time of Plato have met at the malt shop to solve the problems of the world and have been known on occasion to discuss class. Access to e-mail to chat with fellow students, friends, someone, or, anyone to bounce ideas off of became imperative.

I have a single thumb switch to use my Liberator and quarter, row, column scanning. When I am communicating I worry whether my speed is fast enough. I don't have any difficulties getting my Liberator to communicate with my computer. However, being unable to activate a mouse required some adaptations.

The way I begin working on the computer is by having somebody push the switch that will boot my system up. Starting is easy because Don Spaeth who is working on his doctorate in rehabilitation science and Ken Kasniewski, a speech pathologist, have facilitated my efforts on the computer by combining Minspeak icon sequences to GIDI computer commands. The combination of Minspeak sequences and GIDI commands permits me to navigate my computer easily, quickly, and without labor. Don Spaeth has spent hours programming my Liberator to communicate with the computer in the most simplest way possible using these icon sequences. The time that this cuts from my having to spell out each command is greatly appreciated. Lucky for me he has made it easy, otherwise there probably be some more mountains following my first headache of Mt. Everest.

I pull up America On Line (AOL) with two clicks of the volt icon, which puts my Liberator into a navigation mode. Then one click of the chest icon, and another click of the shoe icon I can log on to start my magical mystery tour. Most times that I call into AOL I have mail to read. So I'll pull my mailbox up to see who sent me a message, by picking the dog or fetch icon. I will read my mail. Usually I'll reply (which requires me to tab three times and hit enter) or I'll compose something to send later by way of FlashSessions.

Soon, I hope to be surfing cyberspace reading, seeing, and writing what I never dreamed possible. In fact you could say that it reminds me of a joke. How many cripples does it take to change a light bulb? One, he just holds the light bulb and thinks the whole world revolves around him. Which is like myself because I'll probably call the ends of the world with a question that I need answered.

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