Inclusive Technologies

Welcome to Inclusive Technologies

Jim Tobias — Sun, 28 Jan 2001 12:26:07 +0000

We’re here to help you develop, market, or purchase accessible and usable products — products that work better for everyone because they’re easy to use.

Inclusive Technologies provides a full range of consulting services to companies, public agencies, consumers, researchers, purchasers, and policy makers on how products can better meet the needs of all users, including users with disabilities and elders.

Contact us by email (info AT inclusive DOT com) or phone (+1.908.907.2387)

National Broadband Plan drenched in accessibility!

Jim Tobias — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 12:49:46 +0000

The FCC released its National Broadband Plan (PDF), and accessibility advocates should be congratulating themselves on all the accessibility recommendations in it. It includes almost all of the provisions found in the COAT bill, and adds a few more: a high-level Broadband Accessibility Working Group, exhortations to fully implement Section 508, exploration of network-based accessibility services like NPII, and enough other technological and policy initiatives to keep us experts all employed forever offer an almost utopian vision of a fully accessible ICT universe.

FCC snags key accessibility expert

Jim Tobias — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 13:21:42 +0000

The FCC has announced that Karen Peltz Strauss will become the Commission’s new Deputy Bureau Chief of the Consumer and Government Affairs Bureau. Karen is a long-time expert and advocate on access, having worked with Gallaudet University, the Telecommunications Access RERC, and COAT. She has been involved in every aspect of accessibility legislation and regulation for more than 30 years, including authoring key sections of the ADA and the Telecom Act. Karen was the first head of the FCC’s Disability Rights Office. She authored A New Civil Right, a comprehensive history of telecommunications accessibility. Her appointment is a signal from the Obama administration and FCC Chairman Genachowski that accessibility will not be shunted aside, but will be built into the fabric of US technology policy as it seeks to expand access to broadband to all citizens.

Whose language is it anyway?

Jim Tobias — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 12:22:39 +0000

Here’s a great little animation about alternative and augmentative communication (AAC) tools: who should be in charge of them, and for what purpose. It may be a little hard for non-experts to decode, but it makes a clear case for AAC as an expressive medium designed for its user, not a clinical medium designed for its professional.

Accessibility in the world of retail

Jim Tobias — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 09:55:46 +0000

We know that all the assistive technology compatibility and built-in accessibility features don’t mean a thing if the user never learns about them. Retail has often been the Bermuda Triangle of accessibility. The bottom-line fever of the undertrained, commission-driven sales staff makes customized service unlikely. Now Computers Made Easy in Fort Worth offers another model of retail. It caters to people with disabilities and the rest of us who nervously wonder if we can operate the latest gadget or program. The name alone is relaxing! Let’s hope this becomes a chain, and reminds its big box brethren that customers come in all shapes and sizes.

Computer store bridges technology gap for seniors and disabled - Fort Worth Business Press

Do not go gentle into that Good Grip

Jim Tobias — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 17:58:24 +0000

I watched Clint Eastwood’s “Gran Torino” last night. For those who haven’t seen the movie, Clint plays an aging bigot in a shifting neighborhood who gets caught up in gang violence after his wife’s death. Clint’s crusty persona sprays bitter contempt onto the changing world around him as his own health fails.

There’s a scene with his son and daughter-in-law on his birthday that stayed on my mind. They arrive with presents: a reacher and a big-button phone. Needless to say, Clint does not express his appreciation; his subsonic growl builds as they cautiously suggest moving to an assisted living facility. We don’t get to see Clint’s explosion, but we do see the pair hurriedly leaving in exasperation at their own attempt to reach out to him.

My first reaction, of course, was “Thanks, Eastwood, you dipstick, for thoughtlessly stigmatizing accessibility and usability to score shallow cinematic points! Just what the world needs, another portrayal of comfort and convenience as sissified and demeaning.” I slept the righteous sleep of the professionally self-justified.

I awoke less so. People on the receiving end of our beneficence *do* have reactions of reluctance, resistance, and rejection. Are they all dysfunctional fools, or are they just paying resentful attention to the social markers invisibly embossed on every manufactured object? If an upscale watch means “I’m stylish and rich”, what does a reacher mean? And what does giving someone a reacher mean?

When “practitioners” look at a reacher we see an elegant interaction between the sophisticated, painstaking domains of clinical insight and design excellence, and we’re right. It’s just that someone else looking at it sees a prop for a tragedy, and they’re right, too.

I’m sure we’re all doing as much as we can to trim the stigmatic overtones from highly usable and assistive products, and I wouldn’t want anyone to slack off because those efforts are not always rewarded with elder-glee. But I think we’d better pay more attention to how the recipient views the exchange. Sometimes it’s not the chrome-plated heart of the gadget I can’t do without; it’s the chrome-plated face on the dipstick who gives it to me.

Swedish site offers independent living tips

Jim Tobias — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 21:36:43 +0000

There’s a new Swedish site that has collected hundreds of simple, mostly low-tech tips for independent living, arranged by category and degree of disability. Go visit and suggest your own!

Spinalstips - Tips och ideas for people with spinal cord injuries (SCI)

Free captioning of YouTube videos

Jim Tobias — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 14:47:45 +0000

SubPLY promises to caption your YouTube videos for free. Leaving aside the sustainability of that business model, their willingness to step into this void is much appreciated. FCC regulations require captioning for broadcast video, but leave Internet video alone (for now). This has created a growing gap as online video becomes more ubiquitous, useful and unique.

Although some regulation of online distribution will probably arrive sometime, it’ll probably only cover large-market, for-profit content that’s similar to what’s broadcast now. It’s unlikely that you’ll ever be forced to caption the funny things your kids say at family reunions.

Jared’s Global Microbrand » Blog Archive » SubPLY offering free captioning of YouTube video clips

Google improves its Accessible View search mode

Jim Tobias — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 12:49:47 +0000

Google just upgraded its Accessible View experimental search version. The new one shows up in large print, with sound alerts, keyboard navigation, and screen reader compatibility.

In Brief: Google Upgrades Accessible Search

Getting the word out

Jim Tobias — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 10:13:20 +0000

Do-it-yourselfers know Instructables as a great online resource of well-documented, practical projects, and a wide, wise dialogue about them. A recent project took an IKEA crib and modified it for a small-stature parent, using the expert guidance of Judi Rogers of Berkeley’s Through the Looking Glass. Look at the multiplier effect on accessibility awareness when a mainstream site with giant traffic stats picks up our message. Join the Instructables Assistive Technology Group and share your savvy!

MAKE: Blog: Crib Modification for Accessibility