Research into telecommunications options for people with physical disabilities
Toan Nguyen & Rob Garrett,
Research & Development Department,
Regency Park Rehabilitation Engineering.
People with a disability do not have equitable access to the modern telecommunication medium. Not only do they experience difficulty typing, handling the phone, or dialling and answering calls, but for those who are unable to speak, the only option is to type messages using whatever parts of their bodies that are functional. This paper will report on our work to provide practical ways for people with a disability to participate in the extensive community of home and mobile phone users. A part of this paper will cover text messaging solutions for people who have physical disabilities. This is expected to be very significant for those who use electronic communication devices to speak. This project will enable and empower these users to join the community of text users. Development of these new options is necessary because the needs of people with disabilities have not been taken into account at the time of design. An important aspect of this project is the promotion of the principles of Universal Design (or Inclusive Design) to ensure that future products and services take into account the needs of people with disabilities.
The full paper can be downloaded in Microsoft Word and Plain Text formats.