Assistive Technology

"One thing adaptive technology does is to enable blind people to get out of a lot of the stereotypical jobs we were relegated to," explains Assistive Technology Director, Don Swaney. "It seems like in the past, a blind person could either be a broom-maker or a lawyer. There was no middle ground. Technology opens up a whole new range of career possibilities." Don cites the service and leisure industries as prime examples. "As these businesses become computerized, and adaptive technology has allowed blind people to operate in the computerized environment, all kinds of job opportunities are opening up."

According to Don, blind and Deaf-Blind employees use assistive technology in every area of the Lighthouse. "We have people using computers to do high-tech manufacturing, customer service, administration, and training operations," he says. Visually impaired employees use three basic types of adaptive technology depending on type and degree of vision loss: screen magnification, speech, and braille displays.

People with fairly high degrees of residual vision usually use screen magnification, such as ZoomText, to enlarge words and images up to sixteen times. In general, the greater the vision loss, the higher the magnification required.

When working with printed documents, people with low vision may also employ a closed-circuit television (CCTV), a camera with a zoom lens attached to a television screen or computer monitor. CCTV's can stand alone with a TV screen, or the zoom lens can link directly to a computer monitor. In the latter case, a Lighthouse customer service representative may be talking on the telephone, taking notes about a business card order on their computer. At the same time, they can refer to the original faxed customer order that is magnified using the zoom lens. With a flick of a foot switch, the screen changes from the computer program to the enlarged image of the printed order form.

Meanwhile, for people with little or no vision, speech and braille technologies allow computer access. The speech software commonly used at the Lighthouse is called JAWS (Job Access With Speech). JAWS uses what is known as a screen reader to convert letters and words. A speech synthesizer then converts that digital information into sound. Words appearing on the screen are then literally read aloud. An experienced JAWS user can access almost all of the information available to sighted co-workers.

At the same time, some blind and Deaf-Blind Lighthouse employees choose to use braille, either alone or in combination with speech. The braille display of choice at the Lighthouse is the PowerBraille. This piece of hardware displays either 40 or 80 cells. Each cell can produce any of the 63 combinations of dots in the braille code. The same information that JAWS passes to the speech synthesizer is also passed to the PowerBraille. When the user moves the cursor, the display changes. This is known as refreshable braille. By using a combination of mechanical and electronic technologies, the braille on the display can be refreshed as quickly as the spoken word.

"Technology has the most potential to continue leveling the playing field where employment, access to information and communication are concerned," Don says. The Lighthouse maintains over 100 computer workstations with some sort of assistive equipment. "Dana Marmion in our Customer Service Department uses screen magnification for instance," Don continues. "Ursula Culala, another customer service representative, uses screen magnification, braille and speech. Ken Sting, one of our Deaf-Blind machinists, reads his work orders for Boeing airplane parts in braille. At the same time, his co-worker in the Boeing Department, Jim Smith, uses speech to operate his computer numerically controlled manufacturing equipment."

Don is quick to point out that impacts of assistive technology spread far beyond the workplace. "I always wanted to read the paper every day, but I never could," he reflects. "Since 1996 though, I've been able to read the New York Times whenever I want, using a computer with adaptive equipment. Technology is opening doors for blind people in every aspect of life. I can't overstate how truly liberating it is."