Comments for Inclusive Technologies

Comment on Accessibility Value Chain by Marvellous Chansa

Marvellous Chansa — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 10:41:39 +0000

Well explained data on the subject.

Comment on Assistive Technology Boogie by Rosemary

Rosemary — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 06:48:55 +0000

This was a great little tune to illustrate a very important point. Congratulations!

Comment on Assistive Technology Boogie by Samantha Davidson

Samantha Davidson — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 16:08:47 +0000

Hello, My name is Samantha and I am a secretary at an Education Service Center in Texas. I am creating a flier for my specialist’s upcoming workshop and I came upon the assistive technology boogie image and video. I wanted to know if it is okay if one, we may use the image on our flyer for our workshop and two, to use the video in her workshop. Please let me know.

Thank you for your time,

Samantha

Comment on Dueling Stats on Technology and Disability? by Susannah Fox

Susannah Fox — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 21:39:54 +0000

Thanks for featuring a link to both the Pew Internet study and my blog post, where I do hope the conversation will continue. The current survey is just one set of data points — and our first attempt, I might add. Pew Internet is an open-source research organization and we welcome input.

Comment on Cool-looking all-terrain wheelchair for kids by intrin

intrin — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 16:05:23 +0000

great idea, its so cute, will excite the kids that’s for sure

Comment on Free captioning of YouTube videos by Jean Wells

Jean Wells — Fri, 15 May 2009 21:36:12 +0000

I actually tried this out… I had a 3 minute YouTube video and the accuracy of Subply was less than 50%. The plus, is that you get a 50% start on editing for free but I think a live transcriber for $3 and 99% accuracy is a better deal. I couldn’t edit this Subply document for less than $30 on my student assistants salary ($10/hr).

Comment on Do not go gentle into that Good Grip by Jim Tobias

Jim Tobias — Fri, 08 May 2009 13:06:20 +0000

I think there’s a proverb that goes “Father helps son, both laugh; son helps father, both cry.”

Jim, I agree that assistance needn’t stigmatize, especially if the design is deliberately non-stigmatizing. My point was that once we’re through designing them, products go out and have a social life all by themselves. In literature they call this “reader response theory” — the author writes the book, but cannot dictate how the reader will respond to it because of the inevitable intrusion of personal expectations, experiences, associations, etc.

The 2 products in the film have left their blueprints behind to become part of the unsuccessful relationship Clint is having with his kin. As such the reacher and phone are no longer connected to how they came to be designed. It may be that the massive underutilization of accessible and usable products and features lies not in their inherent quality or applicability, but in the network of meanings attributed to them by users and others.

Comment on Do not go gentle into that Good Grip by Jim Mueller

Jim Mueller — Fri, 08 May 2009 11:56:02 +0000

As I wait patiently for Gran Torino to become available for rental, I can’t comment on the movie itself, but the commentary it has spawned is familiar.

Assistance, whether delivered by an individual or by technology, need not stigmatize. That’s what universal/inclusive design is all about – design that is not only needed by people of all ages and abilities, but also desired, even coveted.

Comment on Do not go gentle into that Good Grip by Richard Bray

Richard Bray — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 18:37:58 +0000

Folks who haven’t seen this amazing and important film (Gran Torino) might not easily get from these insightful and somewhat confusing comments that Clint Eastwood’s character’s son appears not only pretty uninterested in his father but actually quite selfish and uncaring (a ‘dipstick’ only mentioned at the very end of the piece).
Thanks for the comments.

Comment on Do not go gentle into that Good Grip by Jane Vincent

Jane Vincent — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 17:00:17 +0000

So other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the movie? Of course, between _Million Dollar Baby_ and his resistance to making his hotel wheelchair-friendly, ol’ Clint has never been the poster child for accessibility, but that’s another topic.

Thank you for this excellent essay; I plan to read it at a class I’m teaching tomorrow night about assistive technology and elders. A few savvy marketers have figured out that this is an issue and have designed campaigns accordingly; think The Gap ads for “easy-fit” rather than “middle-age-spread” jeans, and those annoying late-night ads for what are functionally low-end hearing aids but are promoted as ways to spy on your neighbors with “sonic hearing.” But ultimately, people with accessibility needs—like any consumer—will be more likely to accept products that, in the words of Pip Coburn, address a “crisis [that] is greater than the total perceived pain of [product] adoption.” IF using a cell phone were important to Clint (and that may be a big if for many Boomers/elders), and IF he were finding it frustrating to use his current phone, THEN he might just have not reacted by asking his benefactors if they “felt lucky.”

Now, if overall more products’ design included a modest amount of realization that people with a wide range of capabilities would be using them, this would be even less of an issue…