Life to Live

The history of people with disabilities in Australia - 100 years

A resource guide prepared by: Disability Services Australia Ltd

Contents
Overview / Timeline / Medical Advances & Health / Technical Innovation

Education / Participating in Community Life / Employment Opportunities

The Arts / Sport / Finding a Voice / HOME

Technology, Communication & Mobility


Technology and invention have played important roles in Australia's social history. Importantly, they have enhanced the quality of life for many people with disabilities by providing such things as alternative methods of communication, increased mobility, additional educational tools and more accessible forms of entertainment. Significant improvements have resulted from the rapid advances in computer technology, particularly the development of the personal computer throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Other technologies, such as the invention of television and tape recorders, have also made an impact.

Communication

What is communication? According to the Macquarie Concise Dictionary: communication is "the imparting or interchange of thoughts, opinions, or information by speech, writing, or signs."

An alternative definition: "Communication is essentially a multimedia experience depending upon combinations of sound, light, vision, pattern, movement, taste and touch." (Extending Horizons - A Mark of Meaning, by Bernard Gummett, 2001)

Historically, alternative methods of communication have been developed in order to assist people who:
* cannot see
* cannot hear
* have some ability to see
* have some ability to hear
* cannot speak
* have difficulty speaking
* who cannot write

Touch replaces sight:
For the first few decades of last century, Braille was the most universal method for a person with a vision impairment to read or write. Braille was invented by Frenchman Louis Braille in 1824. It is a system of raised dots, with patterns of up to six dots representing letters of the alphabet or numbers. Braille is read by passing one's fingertips lightly over the patterns.

A device known as a slate and stylus was developed in order to write Braille, and in fact, it is still sometimes used today for correspondence. It uses a pointed implement to create the raised patterns of dots on paper - a method often referred to as embossing. Braille writers, also known as braillers, date from around the 1940s and are like typewriters. Letters are embossed on to paper by typing the right combinations of dots.

Today, special typewriters and word processors, together with Braille printers, enable rapid Braille production. Modern devices, such as the Mountbatten Brailler, allow the user to type and print Braille, and can also translate Braille into text. The Mountbatten Brailler has a synthetic speech option, enabling the user to check what has been typed.

The use of television:
Television became available in Australia in 1956. During the mid 1970s, a system was developed which used a small television camera to capture words or images on paper and display them in a magnified format on a television monitor. This was of assistance for people who had some degree of vision. Today, more sophisticated versions of this technology use hand held cameras that plug directly into television monitors and can be rolled across a page of text like a computer mouse. In a similar way, programs have also been developed for computers which can magnify an on-screen image by up to 32 times its normal size.

Talking Computers:
A major development in communication tools for people with disabilities was the invention of the personal computer and its increasing availability in Australia during the 1980s. Synthetic speech systems and software, which make the computer "talk" by reading text typed into a computer, were a major breakthrough. They created a whole new way for people with vision impairments to read and write, and have become a means of communication for people who are unable to speak, or who have difficulty speaking. Programs such as JAWS for Windows and Windows Eyes, using synthetic speech systems, allow users with vision impairments to read through complex graphical environments. Technology is also available to scan text pages and convert them into voice.

The first print-to-speech reading machine was the Kurzweil Reading Machine, invented by American Ray Kurzweil in 1976. Ray and his colleagues had already created technology which allowed a computer to recognise text in a variety of printed styles or fonts. On an aeroplane one day, Ray happened to sit beside a gentleman who was blind and decided to create a machine which could read text to people who were blind or who had vision impairments. To this end, Ray and his colleagues also invented the first flat bed scanner (to read typed text), and a speech synthesizer (to read text out loud). The combination of technologies resulted in the Kurzweil Reading Machine. It was expensive technology back then, but it was the model for a whole range of talking computer devices and optical scanners that are available today.

Talking Books:
The American Foundation for the Blind developed the first talking books in 1932. Talking books are essentially books which have been read on to a cassette, or nowadays, CD. In Australia, talking books were available on a limited basis in schools and institutions for the visually impaired during the 1960s and 1970s and through lending libraries towards the late 1970s. In the mid 1980s, a 4-track talking book machine became available, which was based on standard cassette player technology, making them cheaper and more readily obtainable.

Talking books have been beneficial for people with visual impairments, people with other impairments that prevent them from reading print - such as an inability to hold a book or severe allergic reactions to paper and ink - or people with reading disabilities. Talking book machines allow the user to vary the speed of the reading and may also provide additional amplification, through headphones, to assist people with hearing impairments.

Voice Recognition:
Since the 1990s, the technology of creating text by speaking into a microphone attached to a computer, has been more widely available. A number of word processing programs have been designed for this purpose. Success, however, is dependent largely on the vocabulary of the program, together with the user's ability to repeat a particular word in the same way every time, in order for the computer to recognise it.

Amended text for Audible Pedestrian Signals:
Today, most traffic lights in Australia are fitted with audible, vibrating and tactile pedestrian signals fitted into the push button. Different tones indicate "don't walk" or "walk" and assist the user to locate the push button. A large arrow is also printed and embossed on the button to provide additional information about direction. Early versions of these push buttons were installed in a limited number of locations in the late 1960s and 1970s, however, they were not standard in new traffic lights until the 1980s. The current signals are Australian designed and manufactured, based on European technology.

Another version of the audible pedestrian signal which was developed in Australia during the early 1980s consisted of a hand held device which was placed next to the pedestrian "wait" light on older pedestrian buttons. When the light went out, the device vibrated and made a beeping sound to indicate the "walk" signal.

Sign Language:
AUSLAN is the language used by the Australian Deaf Community and by hearing people who communicate with them. It is a complex language consisting of some 4000 signs, with body movements and facial expressions also being important indicators of meaning. AUSLAN, an officially recognised language, has its origins in early Australian history. It is based somewhat on English sign language, but it is significantly different to American sign language, for example. The first dictionary of AUSLAN was developed by Australian Dr Trevor Johnston and produced in 1997 by the Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children on CD Rom.

For many members of Australia's Deaf Community, AUSLAN is their first or preferred language. In addition, English may be learnt in its written and/or spoken form and by learning to read a speaker's lips by sight. People who have both a hearing and a vision impairment may learn Tadoma, or tactile lip reading. This is done by placing the thumb on the speaker's lips and fingers on the speaker's jawline. Touching the speaker's cheeks and throat assists with speech reading.

Hearing Aids:
Hearing aids have undergone radical changes in technology over the past 100 years. From the early 1900s until the 1940s, hearing aids were large and heavy, were worn on the body and required large batteries. In 1947, Bell Laboratories in the USA invented the transistor, a small electronic device, which revolutionised hearing aids. By the early 1950s, hearing aids became had smaller, cheaper, more effective and could be worn behind the ear. Computer technology again transformed hearing aid design during the late 1980s, and has continued to do so, with the introduction of smaller, programmable devices.

Text Telephones:
also known as TTY. Text telephones were invented in the 1960s for people with hearing impairments. They have a keyboard for typing messages and flashing lights to indicate a call. The technology of text telephones has evolved considerably since then, with software also being developed for use with a personal computer and modem. A caller and receiver, both using text telephones, may talk directly to one another. If only the caller, or only the receiver is using a text telephone, the conversation takes place confidentially through a communications service operator, who will relay messages by either typing or speaking, as appropriate.

The Australian Communications Exchange, under contract to the Commonwealth Government of Australia, provides a 24 hour a day National Relay Service, to Australians who use text telephones. A call monitoring service is also available for users who may have a speech impairment and require translation assistance. The Australian Communications Exchange introduced the world's first national text-based emergency service for people who use text telephones. Police, Ambulance or Fire Brigade can be reached by dialling 106 from anywhere in Australia.

The Importance of Light:
John W Flynn, in his book No Longer by Gaslight refers to the necessity of light for communication for people who are deaf. Light is essential for writing, sign language and reading of the lips and face. Until the electricity became widely available in Australia towards the end of the nineteenth century, it was often under gaslights on the streets that people gathered to communicate with one another.

During the 1990s, a number of portable communication devices became available for people who cannot speak, but who have some means of using an electronic keyboard for writing messages, even by using just a finger or pushing a large electronic button. Depending on the device, messages may be printed on a piece of tape, displayed on a small electronic screen, or spoken through a speech synthesizer. A number of devices are able to store frequently used words or phrases, which can be selected by the user.

When someone who wishes to communicate can only use their eyes, they can still relay messages with the use of and E-tran or eye transfer board. Letters, words, symbols or pictures are placed around the edge of a clear plastic frame, and the user points to these with his or her eyes, which can be observed by the person he/she is communicating with through a hole in the middle of the board.

Technology and Learning Disabilities:
People with learning disabilities may have difficulties with various things such as speaking or understanding speech, spelling, reading, writing, arithmetic, with concentrating, or with completing tasks. Sometimes more than one of these abilities is affected. It has been demonstrated that basic modern technology such as a word processor, when used by students with learning disabilities, can be beneficial in some circumstances and enhance self-esteem. It can enable students to record their thoughts, rearrange them on the computer before handing them to a teacher, and can be used to correct spelling and look up words in an electronic dictionary.

Mobility

Touch, Sound and Smell:
The senses of touch, sound and smell play an important part in the lives of people with vision impairments.
* The use of touch is a way of navigating through an environment, such as the home. In addition to memory, it is a way of locating items.
* Through the use of a walking cane, touch enables people with vision impairments to move around and to travel independently.
* The movement of sound, such as the passing of a car or an approaching train, provides additional information to assist mobility and safety.
* The sound of a voice indicates the direction of another person.
* Loudness indicates distance and how close a person, animal, car, or any other object that makes a sound may be.
* Smell is an indicator of food, of flowers and of a whole range of items and activities, therefore, it also provides information about direction.

Guide Dogs:
The first person to use a guide dog in Australia was Dr Arnold Cook, who brought a guide dog to Perth from London, where he had been studying. At his suggestion, and with the assistance of APEX, the first guide dog training centre in Australia was established in Perth in 1952. It served the needs of people from all over Australia until the national training operations were moved to Victoria in 1962. Today, there are guide dog associations throughout Australia. The most common breeds of guide dogs are Labradors and Golden Retrievers. Guide dogs are trained to stop at curbs, avoid obstacles and to sit quietly beside their owners when not guiding them.

Cane Techniques:
The idea of using a cane to walk and move around obstacles originated during World War II. An American by the name of Richard Hoover was involved in the rehabilitation of soldiers who had been blinded in the war, and his priority was to find a way for them to move around independently. It was not a commonly used technique either in America or the rest of the world for many years. In the mid-1970s the touch cane technique, as it came to be known, was introduced to Australian children with vision impairments.

Wheelchairs:
The first wheelchairs originated in Europe.

In 1588, Balthazar Hacker of Nuremburg invented a chair on wheels which could be converted to a bed. A short time afterwards, a Flemish man by the name of Jehan Lhermite designed a wheelchair for King Phillip II of Spain, made of wood, leather and iron. There were a number of innovations in the following two hundred years, but it was an English wheelchair of the late 1700s by John Joseph Merlin which stands out for its contemporary design. It had full sized wheels with slightly smaller inner wheels for the occupant to turn with his or her hands.

For another century, wheelchairs were mostly made of wood or basket-weave, and were relatively heavy and awkward to manoeuvre.

A major breakthrough in design came in 1933 when Herbert Everest and Harry Jennings of Los Angeles built the first folding, tubular steel wheelchair. It was built for Everest who had been paralysed in a mining accident and was frustrated with his wooden wheelchair.

The next significant innovation in wheelchair history was the development of the electric wheelchair, which became available in Australia during the 1970s.

Since then, both electric and manual wheelchairs have been continually redesigned and improved using stronger, more lightweight materials such as carbon fibre and titanium - spin-offs from space age technology.

CASE STUDY:
Tim Noonan

Tim Noonan has a hands-on approach to adapting technology for people with disabilities. He has provided advice to government and industry, assisted with the development of new products, and worked as a disability consultant for a tertiary education institution. As an Australian who is blind, Tim uses his Degree in psychology and special education in a practical way to determine what the consumer who is blind or vision impaired wants to be able to do with technology, and then finds effective ways of doing it.

Tim has enjoyed trying out new technologies as they have been introduced. An Australian invention which impressed him was the Wilson Braille to Print Converter which was launched in 1982 and, as the name suggests, translated Braille into text. As no instruction booklet came with it, Tim wrote one.

In 1984, Tim purchased his first talking Apple computer. As all Apple computers have built in speech capability, Tim used a program called Outspoken to read the onscreen text. These days Tim travels with an IBM laptop computer, and uses JAWS for Windows to read onscreen text.

A technology which was highly creative but is no longer manufactured was called OPTACON. It was developed by US company Telesensory, and would "read" an image, such as text, and translate it into a raised pattern of pins in the same shape as the image. Most people, however, found the device difficult to use.

Sonic Glasses were developed by a New Zealander by the name of Russell Smith and produced by a company which is now part of Pulse Data. They worked by making warning sounds as the person wearing them moved towards objects. Tim has used sonic glasses but prefers the use of a touch cane.

One of the projects Tim is currently working on is for the Royal Blind Society of NSW, developing technology which can read The Sydney Morning Herald and The Australian Financial Review newspapers over the telephone. The publishers provide a data file which the program translates into sections, which can then be selected by the caller and read aloud by an electronic voice.

A key aspect of the work Tim does is to liaise with the media in order to ensure that people with disabilities are promoted positively, as well as to educate and update the community on disability and technology related issues. He has appeared on shows such as Quantum, Hot Chips, The Today Show, Good Morning Australia and been interview by various radio stations and newspapers. Tim also gives presentations at conferences both in Australia and overseas.

A Century of Adaptation

Creative people around the world have come up with lots of ways for making daily activities, including the use of technology, more user-friendly for people with disabilities. Some general technological developments, which weren't specifically designed for people with disabilities, have also been beneficial. Below is a list of ideas and inventions that came out of the 20th Century.

* The use of colour - such as brightly painted walls, door frames and edges of steps to assist people with a vision impairment.
* Pointers made from steel or wood which can be attached to a headband, or strapped to a hand, to assist people to type or to press switches.
* Bathroom showers with hose attachments and a single handle for heat adjustment to assist people with limited strength or mobility.
* Hand rails, shower chairs and toilet raisers for people with limited mobility or strength.
* Talking clocks for the vision impaired which tell the time at the press of a button.
* Hands free telephones which mean that the user doesn't have to be able to hold a telephone to make a telephone call or speak to a caller.
* Sloping footpath access which allows people with limited mobility, people in wheelchairs, and indeed mothers with prams to move on to the footpath more easily.
* Remote controls for televisions, video recorders and stereos which mean that the user doesn't have to move to the device to change such things as channels or volume, or to rewind or replay music and videos.
* Software for people with limited mobility or vision impairments which enables a keyboard to be used like a computer mouse.
* Electric book turners which can hold a book in a suitable reading position, and enable the reader to turn the page by moving a lever with their head, or some other part of their body.
* A standard microwave which allows reheating of food without burning or spillage.
* Front loading washing machines and dishwashers which allow people in wheelchairs who are limited by height, to use them more easily.
* Buildings which have lower door handles and lift buttons, ramps instead of, or in addition to stairs, and toilets which are accessible for people using wheelchairs or walking frames.
* Lower and bigger pedestrian buttons on traffic lights for people using wheelchairs or people who have difficulty pressing small buttons.
* Specially designed knives, forks, spoons, plates and cups which are easy to pick up, and which reduce spillage for people with limited mobility.
* Electric beds and reclining chairs for greater ease of movement and comfort for people with limited mobility.
* Turntables for the seats of chairs which allow greater movement.

MUSIC often plays an important role for people with disabilities. For people with limited mobility, or who require assistance with manual tasks, the changes in music technology since the 1980s have been significant. Phonographic records were easy to damage and had to be turned over approximately every 20 minutes. Cassette tapes, although harder to damage, also had to be turned over frequently. However, the invention of compact discs (CDs) and multiple CD players has meant that music may be enjoyed for much longer periods of time, sometimes hours, without assistance. Remote control devices can also be used to control volume or change tracks.

COMPUTER GAMES have been a great invention for people with limited mobility. For people who may be unable to pick up and play with traditional toys or games, there are many electronic alternatives. Things such as card games, crossword puzzles, books and other interactive games for children and adults of all ages are available for use on the computer.

THE INTERNET: The increasing availability of internet and e-mail since the mid-1990s has provided a simple method for people all over the world to communicate with one another. For people with disabilities, it is a means to communicate and interact without physical or social limitations. It has created alternative ways of receiving education and information, of enabling people to work from home, and provided new ways to meet people through participation in discussion forums or support groups.

WHEN IS MODERN DESIGN TOO SLEEK? Modern appliance designs often incorporate sleek control panels with completely flat buttons under a fine plastic membrane. Touch screen monitors or televisions which ask the user to select options from a menu on a screen are similar concepts. For people with vision impairments these can be difficult, if not impossible to use.

Links

Explore the following websites to find out more:
Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children http://www.ridbc.org.au/
VICDEAF http://www.vicdeaf.com.au/
Guide Dog Association of NSW and ACT www.guidedogs.com.au
Australian Communications Exchange http://www.aceinfo.net.au/

Discussion and Further Reading

Questions to Explore in Class
1. What are some of the ways people with vision impairments can move around independently?

2. How do signals at traffic lights assist people with disabilities to cross the road safely?

3. What are some of the different ways you can read text?

4. How can "talking computers" assist people with disabilities?

5. What are some of the ways a person with a hearing impairment may use to communicate?

Creative Ideas

* Within the classroom, take it in turns to be blindfolded and walk around the room without verbal directions from other people in the room. Discuss some of the things you had to do to walk around the room. What other senses did you rely on to move around?

* Learn to finger-spell. By learning the letters of the alphabet as signs, you will be able to communicate with others using sign-language.

Further Reading

No Longer by Gaslight - by John W Flynn

Living in The State of Stuck: How Assistive Technology Impacts the Lives of People with Disabilities - by Marcia J. Scherer

Out of Darkness : The Story of Louis Braille - by Russell Freedman and Kate Keisler