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Finding a way for a child with cerebral
palsy to use a typewriter sparked a sharp career turn for Neil Scott.
In 1977 the man who witnessed a little girl named Jackie valiantly, but
vainly, flailing away at a typewriter in Wellington, New Zealand wasn't
Archimedes, the third-century Syracusan mechanical genius famed for exclaiming
"Eureka" upon displacing his bathwater and for boasting "Give
me a lever and a place to stand, and I will move the world". It was
me.
But ultimately, if circuitously, my meeting with Jackie led to the founding
at Stanford University's Center for the Study of Language and Information
(CSLI) a research organisation called The Archimedes Project, whose mission
is leveraging technology to allow people with disabilities to efficiently
'move their world' through interacting with information and controlling
their environment.
Just weeks before meeting Jackie, the director of the design school at Wellington
Polytechnic, where I was then dean of the engineering department, saw a
small teaching computer on my desk and had asked me if computers could be
used to turn lights on and off. Immediately, I wrote a little program that
did so. Impressed, the director asked me to demo the solution at the Crippled
Children's Center, where many of the kids couldn't operate light switches
manually.
This demo of how inputs other than keyboard command could turn lights off
and on inspired a request from the headmistress of Wellington's special
education school. Could something be done to help ten-year-old Jackie, who
couldn't do most of the things children her age could do, including write
in a school notebook?
When I arrived at the school, Jackie's wheelchair had been set before a
typewriter and the little girl was swinging her arms so violently, she seemed
to be attacking the machine. She could not control her movements well enough
to hit the keys with the nail-like device strapped to her wrist. In retrospect,
I recognise that seeing Jackie's struggle, and similar ones by other disabled
children, mostly in wheelchairs, was my Eureka moment:
"This is all so wrong" was the intense thought that instantly
overcame me. Before turning in that night, I hit on an engineering approach
that not only proved successful for Jackie ? she could move her knees to
tap out Morse code on switches on stalks projecting from a computer ? but
also changed my life.
Trained as an electrical engineer, I have for more than 25 years focused
on using technology to improve access to information and control over their
environment for people with disabilities. In 1986, I emigrated to the United
States. After two years in San Francisco as a consultant in disability access,
I spent five years at the Northridge campus of California State University,
where I developed and ran one of the first major Computer Access Labs for
students with disabilities. The lab, which served more than 1,000 students,
was a very educational experience for me. Forcing me to assess the pervasiveness
of the barriers to computing for disabled people, it strengthened my determination
to remove them.
The Archimedes Project
In 1991, I was invited to continue developing computer access technology
for people with disabilities at Stanford, where I co-founded The Archimedes
Project. Not a specific project, we are a group of individuals from multiple
disciplines and broad real-world experience who are committed to making
information technology universally available to all people, regardless of
their abilities, needs, preferences, and culture.
As with other innovations originally aimed to compensate for human limitations
? for example, the TV remote control, which was invented for people with
limited mobility but now used by everyone, our work with adaptive technology
has inevitably brought us to see radically new approaches for how all people
can more affordably, efficiently, comfortably, and conveniently benefit
from our ever increasing wealth of information appliances. And by 'all people',
we mean every person on the planet, not only people with physical and cognitive
limitations, but also the elderly, people who can't read or have little
money, as well as the increasing numbers of people everywhere who must,
or wish to use computers and information appliances for work or personal
enrichment.
Adaptive technology with a twist traditionally, adaptive technology has
required the modification of existing computers and devices to enable their
use by people with disabilities. As we all know, this approach simply doesn't
work: it takes too long, costs too much, and quickly becomes obsolete, given
the predilection of the information technology industry for predicating
profitability on planned product obsolescence.
The Archimedes approach is radically different in that it equips individuals
with a device that allows them to use all computers and devices, including
future models, without requiring modification to their hardware or software.
Our model is analogous to giving a person with limited vision a pair of
glasses that enables him or her to see everything clearly. For example,
with my glasses, I can read this article, watch TV or a movie, or enjoy
a sunset. Similarly, Archimedes's patented Total Access Port (TAP) allows
its user to use any computer, including ones not yet released, as well as
public information kiosks, and the whole spectrum of information appliances.
Turning concepts into products
Because the Archimedes team believes that information technology holds enormous
promise for improving human lives, we are dedicated to helping realise that
promise through original and collaborative research, education, and studies
and projects with companies, organisations, and nations.
Education is a vital part of our mission. We encourage creative and entrepreneurial
people from all parts of the world to join us as visiting research assistants
or interns. This summer, 20 exceptionally talented graduate students from
nine countries as well as Stanford, toiled away in the Archimedes Access
Factory, a 10-week program designed to complete the testbed and demo suite
requested by several universities and technology centers worldwide to allow
them to replicate our approach to developing universal access systems. Given
the huge opportunity for technological solutions to prevent human limitations
from being handicaps and the wealth of global resources eager to contribute
their efforts, we believe that sharing our research approach can save others
time and money in working toward their own solutions.
For human beings to benefit, solutions must reach the people for whom they
are intended. Consequently, we established a non-profit corporation ? Archimedes
Access Research and Technology International, Inc. (AARTI) ? to design,
develop, and test prototypes incorporating technologies resulting from our
research. AARTI offers training and consulting services such as seminars
on accessibility, project management tools, process control strategies,
design information, legal requirements, and website assistance.
And then, to license these prototypes to companies for the manufacture and
marketing of prototype-based products, we formed a for-profit entity, AARTI
Holdings, Inc.
Finally, given the urgent need for solutions and the fact that many of the
world's people who could benefit most from our technology can afford it
least, we are establishing the Archimedes Foundation at Stanford University.
It seeks funding not only to support our collaborative research efforts
and our researchers, many of whom have joined us from far-flung parts of
the globe, but also to make the fruits of our research available to people
who could not otherwise obtain them. The need for accessibility tools is
global, but so are the resources for creating them.
One of Archimedes' key strengths, I believe, is the alliances we have formed
not only at Stanford, one of the world's leading centers of information
and computer science, but with other universities, product developers, and
manufacturers worldwide. These include Ritsumeiken University (Japan), the
Royal College of Art (UK), Trinity College (Ireland), Auckland University
of Technology (New Zealand), the San Sebastian Technology Park (Spain),
and EDF (France).
The Archimedes Project had its beginning a quarter century ago in my encounter
with Jackie in New Zealand. But since there are no limits to the ways technology
can extend human ability, this project ? really, an article of faith and
aspiration ? has no ending. My hope is that increasing numbers of individuals,
companies, organisations, and nations will share our commitment to empowering
people everywhere through developing and deploying innovative and affordable
technology that serves their unique needs.
http://archimedes.stanford.edu
Posted: 11 September, 2002 |
