Personal Computing to Aid the Handicapped--The Johns Hopkins National Search: New Horizons

Chapter 11 Personal Computing to Aid the Handicapped—The Johns Hopkins National Search: New Horizons Paul L. Hazan COMPUTING AND THE HANDICAPPED * Technology for people * Harnessing public creativity (A case study) * Business opportunities ($ Billions) * Future challenge(s) COMPUTING FOR THE HANDICAPPED (The Johns Hopkins First National Search) * Objectives of search * Putting it all together * The public response * The National Fair * Business perspectives * Conclusions PAUL L. HAZAN is Assistant to the Director for Advanced Computer Technology at The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) where he heads the Laboratory's microprocessor program . He served on the Board of Governors (19771981 ) and was Director of the IEEE Computer Society for Micro and Minicomputers (1977-1978). Before joining APL, Mr. Hazan was Technical Director of the Singer Company, Link Division, in Maryland where he was responsible for the development of a wide range of real-time computing systems. Prior to that, he was a senior analyst with Sperry Rand. He is the author of numerous papers on computing and has chaired several national and international computer conferences including the IEEE Computer Society's COMPCON (1976 and 1977). As Chairman of the IEEE Computer Society Technical Committee for Micro and Minicomputers (1978-1980), he chaired 10 microcomputer technology and application symposia covering the military, industrial, and educational fields. He also headed the 1980 workshop on the application of personal computing to aid the handicapped. Mr. Hazan was Project Director for The Johns HopINTRODUCTION The evolution of low-cost personal computing technology promises unprecedented educational and vocational opportunities for millions of handicapped citizens. Extending the reach and improving the quality of life of disabled people are surely among the most worthwhile kins University Series on Personal Computing for schools entitled "Adventure of the Mind," being telecast across the United States and Canada. He was project director of The Johns Hopkins National Search for the Application of Personal Computing to Assist the Handicapped. Mr. Hazan obtained a B.S. in electrical engineering in 1952 from the Royal College of Science and Technology in Britain. He did his graduate work in computer science at the University of Maryland. 546 A.A.D. I September 1982 The Johns Hopkins National Search achievements that will result from the expanding use of computers. As an example, the community involved with the hearing impaired has pioneered many innovations involved with the application of technology for its own constituency . The advent of the highly flexible and widely avaUable personal computers may signal a new era of opportunities for a much broader segment of handicapped people. This is because the same personal computing system may be adapted and used as a valuable tool for many different handicapping conditions, thereby unifying the handicapped into a significant market segment. A promising new alliance between the power of computing and the urgent needs of the handicapped is providing a new impetus that is capturing the imagination of both the handicapped and the computer communities. In sympathy with the need to relieve the constraints under which many handicapped people live and to turn opportunities into reality, the Johns Hopkins University First National Search was conceived as a competition to inspire computer -based applications aimed at meeting the educational, vocational, daily living, and recreational needs of disabled persons. OBJECTIVES OF THE NATIONAL SEARCH The objectives of the National Search were to: * Focus the power of computing technology on the urgent needs of millions of handicapped individuals; * Stimulate individual innovation and creativity in the general public; and * Encourage individuals, professional societies , and academic, industrial, government , civic, and rehabilitation organizations to work together to meet a major human need. THE NEED The number of people afflicted with mental and physical handicaps typically represents approximately 10% of a country's population. In the United States, for instance, this figure is in excess of 25 million. This includes individuals with handicaps related to hearing and language , vision, mental retardation, learning disabilities , neuromuscular or neurological disorders, and limitations of movement. There are, for example, miUions of children suffering from learning disabilities whose education may be significantly helped through the innovative application of available personal computing technology. The addition of such standard modules as voice synthesizers and voice recognition devices promises to extend...