Power in the Mainstream:
Using New Technology
to Provide an Accessible Curriculum

Meyer and CAST Co-Executive Director David Rose introduced seven CAST "pioneers," individuals who have been working with the organization to develop better technologies for communication in school. Three of the pioneers appeared in person at the conference, and four appeared on videotape.

• Caroline, a six-year-old in Beverly, Massachusetts, has cerebral palsy with moderate to severe hearing loss; she cannot hold a book. CAST has designed software that permits Caroline to read a book on a computer. The page of text and illustrations appears on the screen alongside video of a signer, and a digitized voice reads the text aloud. Caroline uses a customized chin switch to enter commands. Thanks to this technology, she is able to undertake the kind of independent preliteracy explorations that other kindergartners perform.

• Andrea Schneider is a first-year graduate student at Boston University, studying special education with a focus on moderate to mild special needs. She has a learning disability and hearing loss. CAST is working with her to develop software that displays textbook pages on a computer screen. A voice reads aloud as the pertinent text is highlighted on screen. She can pull out part of the text into a notepad for later review and look up the definition of any unfamiliar word in an electronic dictionary. The speech capability in particular is "wonderful," Schneider said. "I hope in the future that there will be more available text on computers or that text can be conveniently put onto the computer, and I won't have to deal with readers and tutors."

• Megan, a fourth-grader in a mainstream classroom, loves reading and hopes to be a writer. She has cerebral palsy and significant visual impairment, and her speech is difficult to understand. Now when she is assigned to give a presentation to her class, Megan composes her remarks ahead of time on the computer, then uses the computer's speech output capability to convey the information to her classmates. Other students no longer have to stop her in the middle of a presentation and ask her to repeat something.

• Mason Barney, a high school junior from Ipswich, Massachusetts, is both gifted and learning-disabled. He uses a computer to bypass his illegible handwriting and to illustrate his papers. For a science fair project, he used a digital computer camera and a series of still clips to make a motion-picture explanation of his experiment. "It visually shows what is happening and how I got my data much better than any picture could," Mason said. "If a picture can tell a thousand words, a movie can probably tell a million."

• George, a 39-year-old worker on a commercial farm in South Hamilton, Massachusetts, has developmental disabilities. As part of his work and as a hobby, he studies weather maps. The maps are readily available on computer databases, but reaching them requires a series of steps--starting the telecommunications program, dialing the database, keying in the password, interpreting questions and options along the way--that exceed George's skills. Using macros and text-to-speech capability, CAST has consolidated these steps into four keystrokes so that George can reach the database on his own.

  Rose pointed out that in this case the information itself is accessible, but the ordinary access route is not. "One of the concerns we have about the new information highway," he said, "is that there aren't really any ramps onto it for lots of people."

  

• Robert Park, a freshman at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, is legally blind and has cerebral palsy; as a consequence, he has trouble reading and writing. He hopes to study the law and become an attorney, using digitized books that are read aloud electronically.

  CAST has developed a prototype interface to allow Park to use a commercial electronic information service. The interface magnifies the screen and its icons, reads electronic mail and other digitized texts aloud, and responds to voice commands. The system helps Park move closer to what he describes as his goal of "full independence."

• Judy, aged 23, had a brain-stem stroke as a college freshman. The only muscles she can control are her eyelids. Working with other organizations, CAST has developed a system that she can control. A camera attached to a computer focuses just below her hairline. She blinks her eyes to activate computer commands.

Helping students with disabilities, like many other technology applications, requires software. Today, few textbooks have been converted into electronic form, and the standard procedure for doing so--scanning the data into a computer, one page at a time--is costly. Although publishers generally typeset and design books electronically, most companies are unwilling to part with the digital data. According to Rose, CAST has called eight different publishers about getting electronic versions of textbooks to adapt for students with disabilities, and "so far we are zero for eight."

Expense is not the only problem. Most digitized books, Rose noted, have an "added quality," like ramps built onto existing structures. Ideally, the alternative access system would be built in from the outset through what is called "universal design."

With that goal in mind, CAST approached the Scholastic publishing company about two years ago, proposing to create an instructional program for early reading that would have built-in comprehensive access. The result, newly available, is a series of 72 early reading books that are sold both on paper and on CD-ROM.

The CD-ROM version has many advanced features. An introductory cartoon presents the book titles using music and speech. After the student selects a book, each page is displayed on the screen. On command, the CD will read the page aloud, using different voices for different characters. The student can click to hear an individual word pronounced. He can also use a microphone to read the book, then hear his rendition and compare it with that on the CD. "Teachers report to us that kids are reading 10 or 12 times to get it just right for the recording," Rose said, "which they then play for parents and classmates." The student also can magnify illustrations, color them, color the words, write responses to stories, and otherwise make the book his own.

For students with disabilities, teachers can customize the learning experience. The pace of the oral reading can be slowed down. The text can be magnified. The system can scan through its options for students who can operate only a single switch. The colors of text and background can also be adjusted to each student's learning preference.

As a result, a single CD can virtually republish a book for each child in the classroom. "For every child on the teacher's list," Rose said, "I can set up an instructional path and the kinds of access features that child needs so that the book is structurally correct for them."

As for cost, Rose said that the electronic versions of books need not be expensive, but they do require computers. "We are preparing kids for the 21st century with 19th century tools," he said. "It is ludicrous to think of classrooms that don't have computers."

Rose noted that technology brought into the classroom to help students with disabilities often ends up aiding other students as well. "We have gone into a lot of classrooms around a specific child with a disability to try to make an accessible curriculum, and the classroom reorganized around good technology," he said. "It became part of their general curriculum plans. People with disabilities once again led the way."

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My handwriting is atrocious. I myself cannot read it at times. When I'm trying to express my ideas, nobody can read it, and that obviously poses some problems. Also, writing tends to be very laborious for me. I have to sit there for a long time trying to get out what I want to say. I often cut things short just because my hand is getting tired. . . .

The computer allows me to organize my ideas and thoughts in a legible and professional manner. For a science project last year on the growth of cells, the computer allowed me to make graphs and charts and to write. If I didn't have a computer, it would be absolutely illegible. On this science fair project I actually won an honorable mention, which is a fairly big accomplishment, especially considering that I'm learning disabled. . . .

Later on in the year, one of my teachers asked us to make a presentation showing how land and industry affected the growth of America in the 19th century. Some of the people in my class decided to write an essay, which takes a long time for me to do. Others decided to do drawings or maps, which, because I have fine-motor problems, are also very hard for me to do. It's hard for me even to draw a straight line at times. So what I decided to do was to take digitized pictures I found on a videodisk and movies I found on a VCR tape and put them all into a multimedia presentation titled "Nineteenth-Century America."

Mason Barney, a high school junior in Ipswich, Massachusetts,
with learning disabilities

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I have three goals. I would like to be an attorney. I would like to be a politician. And I would like to be, eventually, the United States president. Look out, Washington, here I come! . . .

The print medium is too small for me to read. I am legally blind, which affects my tracking ability and lowers my comprehension. Moreover, I am not able to write on my own. In order for me to be a competent attorney and keep up with the likes of Melvin Belli, I will have to be able to read and write very fast.

I believe that electronic text and voice recognition are going to make that possible, because my hearing, my brain, and my voice are my greatest assets. If I become a lawyer, electronic text will allow me to link up to a service that will provide digitized legal material. I will be able to link up via modem and bring it onto my desktop computer. Then I can throw away those dusty old lawbooks. . . .

The computer voice system has made me much more independent. Before, I had to have my parents do all my writing and reading. Now I am able to sit here and have the computer read to me. That's why electronic text is so crucial: without it, I don't get the information and the education I require.

Robert Park, a freshman at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell,
who is legally blind and has cerebral palsy

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I represent the parents. My child was one of the pioneers here on the screen this morning. He is almost 40. When he was in elementary school, there was nothing like what we have heard today--never in my wildest dreams. And I would never have believed that at almost 40, he could have learned 11 different technological computer programs that have opened up a whole new world for him.

For the challenges you have presented and the hope that you have given, I would like to say thank you from the parents.

Joanne H. Patton

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