The document discusses the history and evolution of assistive technologies that provide physical access to computers from the 1970s to present day. Early technologies included alternative keyboards, switch access systems, text-to-speech, and voice recognition software. The mouse and GUI created new challenges, leading to innovations like touch screens, eye-gaze, and head tracking. Recent developments include tablets, cloud-based solutions, and a proposed global public inclusive infrastructure to standardize accessibility.
2. Physical Access to Computers: Where have we been? Where are we now? Where are we going? Michael O’Leary B Occ Thy HONS Managing Director 29 th November 2011
3.
4. Early History of PCs June 1979: Apple II+ US$1195 August 1981: IBM PC US$1595 1982: BBC Model B (Beeb) £335 NB – No Hard Drive! Applications and data stored on floppy disks
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11. Alternative Keyboards In 1979, to help a friend with Cerebral Palsy, Steve Gensler created the Unicorn Keyboard . This remarkable tool, accessed with a head pointer, launches the firm Unicorn Engineering . It plugged into the Adaptive Firmware Card and was the precursor to IntelliKeys
18. Text-To-Speech As made famous by Stephen Hawking with his EZ Keys for Windows speech generating device by Words+ Inc
19. Text-To-Speech As made famous by Stephen Hawking with his EZ Keys for Windows speech generating device by Words+ Inc Now using NeoSpeech http://www.neospeech.com/audios/NeoSpeech_Paul.wav
20. Text-To-Speech Today Nuance RealSpeak Voices including: Karen http://nextupdownloads.com/scansamples/Karen.wav Lee http://nextupdownloads.com/scansamples/Lee.wav Check out Rachel by Acapela: http://www.acapela-group.com/text-to-speech-interactive-demo.html
21.
22.
23. Alternative Keyboards In the mid-eighties, Arjan Khalsa, joins Unicorn Engineering. His and Dave Schmidt’s creativity helps forge IntelliTools, Inc. in 1991, and shapes a new vision for assistive technology.
31. Keyboard & Mouse Alternatives EZ Keys is just about the only system on the market today that offers morse code input, the fastest computer access method possible for a switch user
50. Webinar on Global Public Inclusive Infrastructure (GPII) for Australia and New Zealand Have you seen the GPII animation and website , but want to know more? Don't feel like attending a webinar in the middle of the night? We've scheduled a webinar just for folks in Australia and New Zealand at a convenient time: December 14, 2011; 12 noon AEDT (GMT +11) Attendees will learn some of the details of the project and where we are at in our development plan. This webinar is for a general audience, and will include time for Q&A and feedback -- we want to learn about how GPII should operate in your countries. Click this link to register. There is no limit to the number of attendees, so please feel free to circulate this announcement.
51. Webinar on Global Public Inclusive Infrastructure (GPII) for Australia and New Zealand Have you seen the GPII animation and website , but want to know more? Don't feel like attending a webinar in the middle of the night? We've scheduled a webinar just for folks in Australia and New Zealand at a convenient time: December 14, 2011; 12 noon AEDT (GMT +11) Attendees will learn some of the details of the project and where we are at in our development plan. This webinar is for a general audience, and will include time for Q&A and feedback -- we want to learn about how GPII should operate in your countries. http://raisingthefloor.org/civicrm/event/info?reset=1&id=3 There is no limit to the number of attendees, so please feel free to circulate this announcement.
52.
53.
54.
Notes de l'éditeur
StickyKeys was first available with the availability of the Extension Easy Access with Mac OS version 6 (April 1988), which also featured moving the mouse cursor with the Keyboard. Microsoft added StickyKeys to their Windows operating system with Windows 95 and is also used on later versions.
15 February 2006 - Cambium Learning Inc announces acquisition of IntelliTools
1998 – Merger between Broderbund and The Learning Company 1999 – The Learning Company purchased by Mattel (Barbie Doll) The Learning Company and its Broderbund unit joined Mattel’s $1Billion software division 1995 – James Makes a Salad by Dof Dickenson (Brains) become James Discovers Math Staff from Unicorn Engineering joined with staff from Broderbund to form IntelliTools