Hi Ann,

WRT the part of your reply that addresses needs assessment versus
a free imagination: yes, you're right.  If the needs assessment is
shallow, like a focus group being asked of a product: 'do you need
this or not', the results will never allow for leaps of creativity.
But if the needs assessment is deep: 'what are people in this situation
really trying to achieve, if we abstract it completely from the way
they're achieving it now', we actually open the door to imagination.
As usual, it's a question of balance....

Jim

> -----Original Message-----
> From: * EASI: Equal Access to Software & Information
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Ann Parsons
> Sent: Tuesday, January 15, 2002 8:48 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Assistive Technology Should Empower, Not "Help," Disabled
> People
>
>
> Hi all,
>
> Jim, an interesting and cogent analysis of Mr. Pearce's article.  You
> make good points, and I agree in principle, but here's something for
> you to think about.
>
> Although needs assessment is a vital tool in determining what a given
> community may or may not need, it should not be the only tool used.
> Let me ask a question.  If Wilber and Orvil (sp) Wright had done a
> needs assessment before inventing The Kitty Hawk, what might the
> results have been?  Would they have received a resounding affirmation
> of their work?  Would they have been given funding to improve their
> little machine that only flew a hundred feet?  And again, would the
> guy who invented the typewriter so that blind people could write more
> effectively  receive funding for this whacky idea of his that blind
> people needed to be able to write so that people could read what they
> wrote?
>
> I think needs assessment and the input of persons with disabilities is
> absolutely essential in trying to come up with ideas which will
> empower us.  However, and this is my point, Jim, someone who thinks
> imaginatively should never be stifled by those who seek to
> surconscribe the needs or wants of a given population.    After all,
> how the heck you know if you're going to need something if you don't
> know what that thing is?  How you gonna know if you need a thing if
> you don't explore that thing, how it works, how it fits into your
> daily life, where it may fit.
>
> Science fiction writers have been doing needs assessments for years
> beyond count, ever since Julles Verne wrote about orbiting the moon.
> That's what their job is, to explore if people "need" things, ideas,
> and beliefs.  Suggest that as well as having a large cadre of persons
> with disabilities on the staff of any engineering project, you seek
> inquisitive minds, science fiction writers and readers to supplement
> the practical down-to-earth thinkers with imagination and flights of
> fancy!
>
> Now, about this glove.  Here's a practical application for you.  I was
> sitting on a bus in November next to a woman who is deaf.  I could
> sign, barely.  But she signed too fast for me.  I couldn't read her
> signed finger spelling at all.  What would have happened if she'd had
> a glove that hooked to a computer with speech output?  I would have
> been able to understand her and our haulting conversation would have
> been a lot better.
>
> In the lady's article she says that The Deaf would have to translate
> from ASL into the English Alphabet in order to use this glove.  Yes,
> they would, but they do that every time they read something in print.
> the Deaf, by necessity, must be bi-lingual.  Sure this is a clumsy
> device, but the idea is sound.  It could lead to signing robots in
> airports or in busy train stations.  It might lead to improvements in
> the lives of the deaf blind.  Could a robot hand be made to form the
> letters and then be connected to a braille output for confirmation of
> the forms of the letters and for independent study purposes?   Think!!
> think!!! think!!! think!!! think!!!  Do not be bound by any convention
> or generalization.  Think!!! think!!! Use the mind you are given,
> explore, evaluate, assimilate, reason!!
>
> Finally, RE the disparagement of the young man's "pity" for the people
> in McDonalds.  Sure, he felt pity for them at first, but then, it was
> transfered into empathy, and not only that, he transformed his
> thoughts into action!  That's a positive thing, a positive action and
> should never be stifled or cut down.  Rather it should be affirmed and
> challenged and channeled to assist in creating devices that may be of
> more immediate use!  This is a good thing, a good thing, I say!  Yes,
> it needs direction from the disabled community, but the desire is
> there, the thinking mind is there, and you can't buy those, folks, you
> can't get that on demand.  It's a seed and you have to nourish it!
> You don't cut it down because it isn't exactly what you want it to be.
> You graft and you prune and you cultivate!!  You fertilize it with
> praise, you water it with affirmation, and by the time you're done,
> you've got a mind and a will that will serve your needs and be happy
> to do!!!  I'm sitting here almost weeping my friends because of your
> callousness and your ingratitude and your snobbishness and your
> exclusiveness and your rejection.  Fine, you wanna be muggles, you go
> right ahead.  I would think, though, that if the disabled community
> showed a positive attitude to inventors and companies, they might be
> included more readily, not because the law says they have to be, but
> because they are wanted, truly wanted in the process!
>
> Ann P.
>
> --
>                         Ann K. Parsons
> email:  [log in to unmask]                   ICQ Number:  33006854
> WEB SITE:  http://home.eznet.net/~akp
> "All that is gold does not glitter.  Not all those who wander are
> lost."  JRRT
>