By Ares Chan

Assistive Technology

Introduction

Over the years assistive technology has been improved to help all users
no matter what situation they're in. In computers, there are many adaptive features 
for people with hearing issues, vision issues and many more. Here are some examples.

Assistive Technology to assist people who have issues such as blindness, poor vision and mobility impariments

Issues	Adaptive Technology
1.Blindness	Voice Output
2.Poor Vision	Magnification, Screen readers
3.Mobility Impairments	Ergonomic Keyboards

• Vision problems
• Spelling
• Impairments
• Accessibility
• Convenience

Blindness/Low Vision

Many people are blind and couldn't use computers that's why technology has been implemented
into computers so that blind people can use computers. Software readers, software magnifiers, and 
screen readers such as narrator have been implemented to help blind or low vision people to magnify the text 
and be able to know what they're typing and read the text on the screen.

Mobility Impairments

People with RSI (repetitive strain injury) can use an ergonomic keyboard that positions their hand 
in a less stressful position. Many people have physical challenges not allowing them to use a normal mouse, so
mice have been created to make it so the user doesn't have to put their wrist in a fixed position, mice such 
as, rollerball, headworn, joystick and visual. RSI symptoms include tremors, clumsiness, numbness, fatigue, lack of 
strength and weakness in hands or forearms. That's why people with RSI need specialty keyboards and mice to 
be able to use computers. CLick the image to find out more about RSI.

Text To Speech

Often used to help people with learning disabilities that affect their ability to read text, text readers 
such as text to speech will read text with a synthesized voice and can have a highlighter to keep the reader on the 
same word being spoken. These applications do not read things such as menus, they purely read text. 

Ergonomic Keyboard

Ergonomic keyboards are not made to cure or eliminate pain  from wrist and hand pain but relax it.
Ergonomic keyboards help and improve the feel to reduce stress in hands and arms. It takes approximately 2 
days to get used to. The keyboard positions the hands in a more natural position and is more comfortable when 
typing.  It eliminates bad typing habits, increases typing accuracy, and has forced improved an focus on touch
typing skills. 

Virtual Keyboard

Is available on almost every if not all tablets or phones today. A picture of a keyboard appears 
on screen that acts like a normal keyboard, but instead of typing on a real keyboard they type on the screen as if it 
were real. It's added convenience for devices such as phones without the ability to type without it or without
a keyboard attached such as 
earlier blackberry models.

Magnifier

Magnifier creates an adjustable box to help people with lower vision
and people who don't want to be so close to the screen to read or watch on a 
bigger screen. The magnification is adjustable and easy to use.

Sticky keys

Sticky Keys are a keyboard feature that can be activated if you spam a certain key.
It is implemented to remain active until a different key is pressed. It is useful for 
people who have difficulty pressing two keys simultaneously.

Alternative input devices

Speech input devices have been added to more electronic devices for a while now and
are capable of providing vocal command, control and speech to text functionality. Seen in 
many models of phones, smart home devices and computers software.

Word prediction

Word prediction helps the user by looking at what the user types and guesses what 
they're trying to type. It helps if the spelling is incorrect and is very convenient, instead
of typing in the whole word you type in part of it and word prediction will figure out which
word you're trying to type and make it a whole lot easier. 

Graphic organizers

Rather than having a messy screen page, graphic organizers allow the user to use supported 
tools to keep stored files in a more visual way. This draws attention to more important parts 
of the screen than others and can be used to help people suffering from learning disabilities
and focus on certain parts of a screen more than others.

List Of Questions:

How does adaptive technology make computers accessible to more people?
How does adaptive technology in computers make computer usage more convenient?
How do computers help with impairments?

Answers Page