Current technologies can make the disabled productive

By Zatni Arbi

JAKARTA (JP): About 13 years ago, as a candidate for the civil service, I was required to undergo a general medical evaluation. Because of my very limited eyesight, the doctor who signed the official evaluation result wrote a comment that went something like: "This person is not fit for highly professional jobs."

On that day back in 1985, I had already had to wait several hours at Persahabatan Hospital before she saw me. She finally showed up in the afternoon, although she was supposed to have started work at 9:00 in the morning. She quickly reviewed the results of my tests, then scribbled that comment. I was already so tired and so fed up that I didn't bother to read what she had written on the report, which was in any case sealed in an envelope. It was only later that I found out that she had condemned me as useless because of my albinism and related poor vision.

Even today the common perception is that disabled people are totally incapable human beings that are totally depend on others for their survival. Incidentally, a great article in the November issue of Home Office Computing features Laura Micklus, who suffers from cerebral palsy and is confined to a wheelchair. Laura works as an assistive technology counselor and a grant writer. She writes for the West Haven Disability Resource Center in Connecticut, USA.

Not only has she thoughtfully designed her workplace, she has also chosen her tools carefully, from the cordless phone to the notebook computer. She uses an IBM ThinkPad 385CD in conjunction with DragonDictate 3.0 and NaturallySpeaking Deluxe, two leading voice recognition programs, and Microsoft Office 97 and Intuit Quicken. With these tools, she can be as independent as most of us able bodied individuals. Her only assistant is Ike, a well- trained dog that will pick up the cordless phone if she drops it.

What Laura proves is that current technologies can empower the physically disabled and make them productive. Voice recognition programs, such as the ones she uses, enable people to put their thoughts and ideas into writing without a lot of physical effort. They can dictate their letters, articles and stories, leaving the computer to transcribe their speech. There will be errors, of course, but intelligent software such as NaturallySpeaking also learns as you use it so that errors are minimized over time.

Voice synthesizers, such as the one developed by Ray Kurzweil, can now read text so that Stevie Wonder can easily read books written by Mark Twain, for example. The eyepiece computer display monitor found in today's wearable computers will also help those with severe myopic conditions.

The range of products that can help the disabled has increased substantially from the time I first met Dr. Edward Flynn, a Honolulu Kaiser Permanente's poor vision specialist who helped me find the right reading glasses less than a year after I received that memorable review from the doctor. Freedom of Speech, which is completely unrelated to our current reform movement, provides tools and devices that can help people with disabilities to lead a useful life (www.freedomofspeech.com). They have devices such as Braille displays, voice-switch activated optical character readers and computerized screen enlargers. For those who cannot move their hands, there is also a foot-operated mouse from Hunter Digital (www.footmouse.com).

And, of course, there is the godsend Internet that allows these people, who are mostly immobile, to work from their homes. The only thing that matters now is the perception of the general public, who must be educated so they come to realize that physical disabilities do not mean hopelessness and dependence on other people's kindness. The fact is, many illustrious people throughout world history have had some kind of disability. The long list includes Albert Einstein, Thomas Alva Edison, Alexander Graham Bell and Walt Disney. If you want to get a more complete list of these people and the disabilities they had or have, just go to http://www.delphi.com/disable/.

Unlike technologies for the masses, technologies for the disabled are not as well-marketed. You have to search far and wide for them. But again, thanks to the Internet, it's no longer such a demanding task. Abledata, for example, provides a database of 24,000 products for the disabled from 3,000 manufacturers around the world. This site is maintained by The National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research, which falls under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Education

Augmentation Communications provides an extensive list of the manufacturers of devices for the disabled (www.augcomm.com). For "physically challenged" children, you can go to the site entitled Enabling Devices (www.enablingdevices.com).

One of the Web sites that you should also visit is www.humanware.com. This company markets all sorts of assistive products that enable blind people to work, including a portable Braille note taker, a speech synthesizer called Jaws for Windows, and Keysoft Productivity Software. The latter is a suite of word processing tools that includes a spell-checker, a calculator and an appointment book.

The bottom line is that with the help of today's technologies and the realization that being born with a physical imperfection does not equate with incompetence, many disabled members of our society could actually undertake useful, important and rewarding work. And that doctor of mine should hold her tongue the next time she encounters a patient with poor vision.