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