Our Technology for Equal Access: Mobility Impairments

Students with mobility impairments talk about the assistive technology they use in educational settings. Students share information about a variety of technology such as adaptive keyboards, speech-to-text products, and more. Also available with audio description: https://youtu.be/HYz5kZgmLkE

>> Cameron: Hello my name is Cameron

and I have a disability
called cerebral palsy.

It affects me because

my legs aren't able to work as well
as others' and it's not as efficient.

In the course of my day as a student,
I use technology such as Dragon.

And Dragon is basically a
speech input system that will

write for me as
I speak into it

and that helps me
become more efficient.

This is an example
of how I use Dragon.

R-E-M sleep

is when the body goes
through multiple stages.

R-E-M sleep

has four stages.

>> Blake: Hello.
My name is Blake.

I graduated from the
University of Washington Tacoma

with a Bachelor of Arts
in urban studies.

I have cerebral palsy

which means I cannot
take notes very quickly.

For me, quality education includes
access to instructors' presentations,

notes or outlines of the lectures

so that I have high-quality notes
from class lectures and discussions.

In college, I used this Dynavox

to communicate with
my peers and professors.

I use word predictive software
called Co: Writer

to speed up my typing
on assignments and papers.

Co: Writer predicts words
in a window as one is typing.

>> Teresa: My name is Teresa.
I'm a high school student

and after high school
I plan on attending college

and majoring in psychology
and I was born without arms.

I use a Bluetooth keyboard
and a Bluetooth mouse

so that I have full accessibility
and I'm able to write down notes

and catch everything
that I need to catch

in a more efficient way.

Without my arms I have the
keyboard and the mouse on the floor

and then the monitor is just sitting
on my table in the classroom.

When I'm typing notes
I can usually type pretty fast

just because of adrenaline

but I'm not fast, as fast
as someone with arms.

>> K: Hi, my name is K
and I'm a congenital amputee,

meaning that I was born
with some of my limbs missing.

For hardware I use
a Surface Pro 3

and I really like it 
because it's super lightweight.

That was one of my biggest struggles
when trying to find a computer to use

was that I couldn't lift
a lot of laptops that were out.

I also love that the Surface
is a touchscreen

which is also really
helpful for me because

sometimes it's a little much for me
to pull out a mouse to use something

so I can just quickly tap on the screen
and it works wonders.

I use my iPhone
for a lot of things.

I intentionally got the Plus
model of the iPhone

so it was larger because I knew
I would want to do a lot of

PDF reading
on my phone.

I use a tiny mouse
on top of that.

So many people have a mouse that they
like to use with their computer

but all the ones I use are smaller
because my hand is smaller.

So it's way easier for me to use a tinier
mouse

that are usually the travel size mice

because it just
fits my hand better.

As for software,

the two main things
that I use

that are not already
built into a device,

because I use many of the
built-in features of the iPhone,

but I use Sonocent which is
a note-taking software

that allows you to sync audio files of the
professor or lecturer giving a presentation

to slides if they
give you slides

as well as syncing it to notes that
you might type during the presentation.

Wake up.

Hi comma

my name is K and I’m a senior
at the University of Washington period.

I use Dragon Naturally Speaking
quite a lot as well.

It's really helpful for me
whenever I have to write long papers

and sometimes I do it
even just for quick emails.

But also because of my wrist
not being super strong

while I can type and
actually type rather quickly

if I have to do it for any long
period of time

I will really start
to hurt my wrist.

Many hardware items have
a lot of built in features.

I use a lot of built-in features
on the iPhone for example.

One of my go-to things
is the AssistiveTouch.

It kind of brings
a little onscreen button

that you can position
wherever you want it

and you can set that button to 
do a bunch of different things.

Right now I have it where
if I do a long hard push

it automatically locks my phone.

I also have it set so that I can make it 
take screenshots for me

because a screenshot you have to hold down
the home button and the lock button

at the same time which is
a little hard with one hand,

especially when you only have
two-and-a-half fingers.

So I really enjoy
that feature as well.

>> Jonah: Using technology,
it changes every year

because I don't know how
I'm going to be next year

I mean, a lot of things
can happen because

my disease is progressive.

I might be using something
new next year.

At the moment mainly
accommodations are just like

for notes I don't
have to write.

My teacher will just give me
a copy of their PowerPoint or something

and I'll just add a
little minor things to it.

>> Jon: My name is Jon.
I have cerebral palsy.

I use a computer that is
calibrated to my eyes.

So whatever I look at
it will type.

Before I would have to
tell somebody what to write down

and now I can do it all.

>> Sheryl: My name is
Sheryl Burgstahler

and I direct
Accessible Technology Services

at the University of Washington
in Seattle.

As you can see,
it’s really important

that people with disabilities have access
to the technology that they need

including assistive technology

so they can be successful
in education, in careers,

and all the activities
that they wish to pursue.

It’s also important
that IT developers

including those that create websites,
documents, software and other IT

make those products accessible to people
who are using assistive technology

and to everyone else.

Subtitles created on the Amara.org platform.