Assistive Technology Lab Expands Collection of Communication Devices - April 10, 2007

AT Lab Manager Hui-Ching Ko with some of the new communication devices

Although today’s world is fast paced and technologically advanced, communication among people is still dominated by speech. This can be a daunting barrier to success in jobs and education for people with speech disabilities, but fortunately, there are many assistive devices available today that help them overcome it.

The Assistive Technology (AT) Lab, jointly run by the Learning Technology Center (LTC) and the Department of Special Education and managed by Hui-Ching Ko, has expanded and updated its collection of assistive communication devices over the past year. This will allow the lab to better demonstrate this type of equipment to the College’s teacher education and special education students. The new acquisitions were made possible by a $50,000 grant from the Texas Center for Disability Studies/Texas Technology Access Program.

Many of the new devices, such as the Go Talk 4, Go Talk 20+, and the Pocket Go Talk, record short messages and assign them to buttons that play the message when pushed. Various devices have different numbers of buttons, so a specific device can be chosen based on the users’ mobility, age, and cognitive function, and the setting in which the device is used. For example, the BIGmack has one large button and is popular for children with autism. On the other end of the spectrum, the TechScan 32 has 32 small buttons that can each store several messages and is more useful for those with high cognition. If the small buttons are difficult to push for low mobility users, large switches can be used to scan through the messages to find the desired one.

Hui-Ching demonstrates the Springboard, left and the Vanguard.

Two other new communication devices, the Springboard and the Vanguard, are actually specially programmed touchscreen computers. They contain many prerecorded messages and words in both Spanish and English, and have a number of capabilities, which are available depending on how onscreen buttons are pushed or how the device is programmed. These sophisticated devices help users communicate many more messages without having to record them first. They can also be used for instructional purposes. Says AT Lab Manager Hui-Ching Ko, “These devices are very expensive, so we are very happy to have finally been able to purchase them.”

Rounding out the AT Lab’s recent acquisitions are several other items, including software to create picture overlays for the communication devices, Braille displays, an adaptive computer mouse for those with little or no hand movement, and a toy mechanical dog that can be activated with a wireless switch. A list of all the AT Lab’s equipment, with product descriptions and other information, is available on the AT Lab Web site.

In other assistive technology news, Hui-Ching has developed a list of accessibility resources available in the Learning Technology Center and at the University as a whole to assist those with disabilities. It includes contact information for many online UT resources for those needing assistance accessing them. Find the resource list by clicking on the blue Student or Faculty tabs on both the College of Education and the LTC home pages.

—Laurie Caldwell, LTC Communications Coordinator