Scientist in Residence Activities
Clayton Lewis, PhD, Professor of Computer Science, University of Colorado at Boulder, serves as the Institute’s Scientist in Residence. Jim Sullivan, PhD, a Coleman Institute Faculty Fellow and Senior Investigator, Department of Computer Science, University of Colorado at Boulder is also participating in some of the initiatives.
The role of the scientist in residence is to identify and support the most promising efforts in shaping mainstream technology to serve the interests of people with cognitive disabilities. Current efforts are centered on the following areas:
- 1) personal mobile platforms
2) cognitive accessibility on the Web and
3) the Technology Forum.
Personal Mobile Platforms
The communication facilities of the mobile phone and the computer are being blended into a new class of powerful handheld devices. The Institute has supported a number of exciting initiatives that are related to these emerging technological breakthroughs.
One is an exploratory project that helps users who have difficulty speaking by connecting a handheld system from an industry partner, Saltillo Corporation’s ChatPC, with a Nokia smart phone. The linked devices allow a user to make phone calls using only the familiar user interface on their ChatPC.
Another initiative is the Institute’s special focus on Android, the emerging open smart phone platform whose development is being led by Google. Activities include a project course at the University of Colorado at Boulder in which students develop Android applications. Student projects in the initial course included a mobility aid, a reminder system with remote caregiver input, a location-aware prompting system, and a naming practice tool for people with aphasia. The Inclusive Android online community was created to encourage information exchange among groups interested in the use of Android by people with disabilities.
There will be a special pre-conference workshop on personal mobile platforms at the Coleman Institute Annual Conference on October 16, 2008
Cognitive Accessibility on the World Wide Web
The Web has become a critical channel for information, participation, and services of all kinds. The Institute advocates support for people with cognitive disabilities in their efforts to utilize technology. One way to do that is to provide specific input about regulations and standards to such groups as the Telecommunications and Electronic and Information Technology Advisory Committee (TEITAC) of the US Access Board, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) of the World Wide Web Consortium, and the Accessibility Directorate of Ontario.
Besides participating in the WCAG effort, mentioned above, the Institute is involved in the Fluid Project (Toronto, Canada) developing pluggable user interface components for web-based software in higher education. Fluid's efforts will spread into other web-based software as well. The Institute is working with the ArcLink and Portland State University for an online testbed and volunteer user test panel to promote cognitive accessibility on the Web.
At the Institute’s fall conference there will be both a special pre-conference workshop on cognitive accessibility on the Web and a conference panel entitled “Policy Directions for Cognitive Accessibility on the Web.” Please consult the conference agenda for details.
Technology Forum
The Technology Forum is a project of the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center for the Advancement of Cognitive Technologies (RERC-ACT) which is co-funded by the Coleman Institute. The Institute’s Scientist in Residence is the principal investigator for this project.
The goal of the Technology Forum is to create and maintain a knowledge base, available on the Web, by promoting the direct communication of mainstream technology leaders, developers of assistive technology, people concerned with policy development and others who care about cognitive disability and technology. The Forum is a vehicle that can provide insight for the national and international dialogue about inclusion, accessibility, standards, regulations and other issues vital to the advancement of cognitive technologies and is open to all who wish to participate.