Assistive technology is one of the key issues in special education today. It helps students with learning debilities, all the way to severe traumatic brain injury. All of the Assistive technology has the same purpose and that is in helping said person with social, academic, and daily living skills. For instance, it can help people with hearing impairments and does the obvious help people hear. Assistive technology allows for those with a disability to have the same access as typically developing people. There is also a need to inform and train academics and students involved in the field about recent developments in assistive technologies to improve their skills in the care and service of people who face these challenges in their lives.
Computer Assistive Technologies for Physically and Cognitively Challenged Users focus on the technologies and devices that assist individuals with physical and cognitive disabilities. These technologies facilitate independent activity and participation, serving to improve daily functional capabilities.
The book features nine chapters that cover a wide range of computer-assistive technologies that give readers an in-depth understanding of the available resources to help the elderly or individuals with disabilities.
A few examples of Computer Assistive Technologies include,
Screen readers: Software used by blind or visually impaired people to read the content of the computer screen. Examples include JAWS for Windows, NVDA, or Voiceover for Mac.
Speech input software: Provides people with difficulty in typing an alternate way to type text and also controls the computer. Users can give the system some limited commands to perform mouse actions. Users can tell the system to click a link or a button or use a menu item. Examples would be Dragon Naturally Speaking for Windows or Mac. Please note both Windows and Mac have some speech recognition utilities, but they cannot be used to browse the web.
Text readers: Software used by people with various forms of learning disabilities that affect their ability to read text. This software will read text with a synthesized voice and may have a highlighter to emphasize the word being spoken. These applications do not read things such as menus or types of elements - they only read the text.
This book serves as a textbook resource for students undertaking modular courses that require learning material on computer-assistive technology. It also serves as a reference for graduate-level courses in disability studies, human-computer interaction, gerontology, and rehabilitation engineering. Researchers working in the allied fields intersecting computer science, medicine, and psychology will also benefit from the information provided in the book.
This is an ideal book for students undertaking modular courses that require learning material on computer assistive technology; graduate students in disability studies, human-computer interaction, gerontology, and rehabilitation engineering. Researchers working in the allied fields intersecting computer science, medicine, and psychology