PRESENTATION: Jim Kessler - Disabilities Overview
COMP 190
Class #3 - 01/16/2003
Timeline of Laws and Innovations Affecting People with Disabilities
1786: Declaration of Independence “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal”
1964: Civil Rights Movement
1973: Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 " no otherwise qualified handicapped individual in the United States" receives federal funds.
1978: Public Law 142 IDEA Federal Laws require that students with disabilities are provided with a free, appropriate public education.
1984: UNC was the first to get a scanner to make Braille books available to students.
1990: Americans with Disabilities Act
Services Offered by Disability Services
Disabilities Services Website
note takers, readers, proctors, interpreters, text to Braille conversions, tutors, alternative testing
Universal Design
Universal Design Website
Equal access is not a matter of fairness.
Blind & Visually Impaired
Visual impairment is the most existentialistic of all disabilities. Consider that unless you perceive an object, it does not exist.
The sightless journey becomes a cognitive activity. But people that are blind can orient themselves using surrounding sounds. For example, a person that is blind cannot be disoriented on UNC’s campus because of the chiming of the Bell Tower. There is a need to teach children who are blind from birth how to perceive environment.
Children who are blind from birth are taught sign so that they will better understand the body image.
Pictures do not serve same purpose for visually impaired. They do not make the same association regarding color (countries drawn on maps). How should we translate these things?
Book publishers do not consider people with disabilities.
Organizations for the blind are the biggest lobbyists, in part because of Helen Keller and all of her accomplishments.
It takes about 30 minutes to translate a proper textbook to CD that can be hooked to a Braille reader.
The Tiger Program and Nemeth Braille are used to translate math into Braille. They work to convert Braille to pictures
Regarding translating other languages into Braille – we can translate from 13 different languages, but not from Greek.
The laser scanning cane was invented during WWII
The Sonic guide and a guide dog are the best combination for helping the visually impaired navigate.
Deaf & Hard of Hearing
There was a town near Martha’s Vineyard where everybody could communicate with sign language.
Disability services paid $100,000 last year for interpreters.
UNC-G and East Carolina have a large deaf community.
Deafness is a double barrier as opposed to the single barrier for the blind
Device that will convert speech to signs for the deaf?
The deaf community in Montreal must take English sign and French sign.
Alexander graham bell wanted to come up with a device so that his wife could hear, but instead invented the telephone.
FM transmitter built into classroom and PA system is a seamless way to provide equal access for the hard of hearing.
Interpretation is a real-time process.
Cued speech = augmented lip reading shows consonants (glottal, nasal, etc.)
Interpreters have no personal involvement because of code of ethics. They get paid $42/hour, but can only work 20hours/week.
Interpreters cannot interpret Shakespeare.
There was a town near Martha's Vineyard where everyody could communicate with sign language
Physically Impaired
Includes people who use wheelchairs or crutches.
Christopher Reeves uses a puff, sip straw to operate his wheelchair. Uses a binary code for that. Other binary codes include using twitch of an eyebrow
You can use retinal reflection to operate on entire environment.
A wheelchair that can climb stairs costs $25,000.
Dragon Dictate $39.95
Psychological & Psychiatric
This category includes behavioral impairments and learning disabilities, such as LD, ADHD, autism, and mental retardation.
TEACCH is the best program for children with autism
Chronic
This category includes brain injuries, chronic fatigue syndrome, and Crone’s disease.
Ray Kurzweil invented a scanning machine that would scan a document and would provide definitions as you read. $1800.
Last Thoughts
It is interesting how the disabled regard others with disabilities. There was one quadriplegic man who was amazed that his friend who was blind was able to go downstairs and buy himself the proper candy bar from the vending machine. At the same time the man who was visually impaired thought to himself how lucky he was that he had full use of his appendages.
In the 1800s, Laura Bridgeman was deaf, blind, and dumb. She was the first person with this disability that was able to communicate by having someone sign into her hand.
Are you disabled? Boy with cerebral palsy did not think he was disabled because he could do everything that his non-disabled counterparts could do. Just because he did things differently does not necessarily mean that the way he did his everyday activities is wrong.