THE NEXT BRAINIACS

"We live at a time when the disabled are on the leading edge of a
broader societal trend toward the use of assistive technology,"
writes John Hockenberry in this month's issue of Wired magazine
(online at  http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.08/assist_pr.html)

"Bodies are perhaps a somewhat arbitrary evolutionary solution to
issues of mobility and communication," he explains, echoing the
sentiments of Berkeley's Michael Williams, a user and longtime
proponent of "augmented communication." "By this argument, the brain
has no particular preference for any physical configuration as long
as functionality can be preserved."

  "The greatest thing people with disabilities have done for the
general population is to make it safe to look weird," says Williams.
"It's certainly true that the general population has glommed onto
some principles of assistive tech. Just roll down the street and
observe the folks with wires dangling from their ears. Look at the TV
commercials featuring guys with computerized eyewear."

Writing of the  "universal redrafting of the human design
specification," Hockenberry says that "in a straightforward way that
needs no psychological jargon to explain, my former body simply
doesn't exist anymore. Like Isaac Stern and his violin, I am now part
chair, with some capabilities that exceed my original specifications."

Read Hockenberry's entire article, "The Next Brainiacs," online at
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.08/assist_pr.html

One of the places mentioned in Hockenberry's story, the Cleveland FES
Center, a consortium of the Cleveland VA Medical Center, Case Western
Reserve University, the MetroHealth Medical Center and the Edison
BioTechnology Center, is at  http://feswww.fes.cwru.edu/

The National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research
funds projects in assistive technology.  "NIDRR's research priorities
in engineering and technology will help improve functional outcomes
and access to systems technology in sensory function, mobility,
manipulation, cognitive function, information communication, and the
built environment," says its Long-Range Plan; read more at
http://www.ncddr.org/rpp/techaf/lrp_ov.html -- and for an overview of
NIDRR projects in this area, go to
http://www.accessiblesociety.org/topics/technology/index.htm -- or
visit the National Center for the Dissemination of Disability
Research's webpage on "Technology for Access and Function Research"
at http://www.ncddr.org/rpp/techaf/index.html


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