from the Chicago Tribune
They can do it:
Technology opens the workplace to the disabled
By Martin J. Moylan
ST. PAUL PIONEER PRESS
Sunday, February 8, 1998
Just another employee. That's the impression Barb Appleby leaves with
the 100 or so customers she may talk with daily.
She works the Northern States Power help line, fielding questions
about everything from budget helper plans and carbon monoxide to
appliance rebates and energy conservation. If she doesn't have an
answer, she calls it up on her computer. It doesn't matter if her
monitor is turned on. Her vision is so poor that she can't read text.
On one side of her headphones, she hears callers' questions. On the
other side, she listens to documents converted from text to speech by
a software program. It reads 350 words per minute to her.
``Without this technology, I wouldn't have a job. That's for sure,''
says Appleby, who was sighted until she was 25 and learned touch
typing in high school. ``Not that many visually impaired people are in
the regular work force. Many people and companies can't understand how
you can do any type of office job if you can't see.''
Her black Labrador guide dog, Flicker, rests under an unused desk in
her cubicle, lying on a big plaid pillow and a couple of bath carpets.
A Snowman doll and other toys are at his side. His gray dog dish sits
behind Appleby's chair.
Still, co-workers sometimes forget Appleby can't see.
``That's a compliment,'' she said. ``It's nice.''
Technology is increasingly allowing people like Appleby to get around
their disabilities and do a wide range of jobs.
Some devices they use, like those that allow people to run computers
with their voices or eye movements, rely on highly sophisticated
technologies. Using Dragon Dictate speech-to-text software, Jack
Norton, a computer systems developer at General Mills, managed to
continue working for two years after ALS (amyotrophic lateral
sclerosis) stole his ability to type. He telecommuted, too, to reduce
the strain on his body.
``People need to embrace technology as quickly as possible to help
them fight against terrible odds,'' said Norton, who also used the
Internet -- and media -- as pulpits to fight for more aggressive
research and treatment of ALS victims. ``This delays being defeated by
the disease. If you give up, you go quicker.'' Norton also worked with
E.I. DuPont on an experimental software program that customizes
synthesized voices. He recorded 1,000 words. The program uses those
recordings to generate speech that sounds more like Norton and less
like a computer.
With his voice now reduced to a labored whisper, he sometimes uses the
program to speak.
Many tools, like the rubber-tipped pens and pencils Wayne Johnson
binds to his hands, are decidedly low-tech but highly effective,
giving him the ability to use computers.
Johnson, a senior systems analyst with the St. Paul (Minn.) Fire and
Marine Insurance Company, may be a hunt-and-peck typist. But that's
good enough to operate a computer.
``Computers level the playing field for someone like me,'' said
Johnson, who was paralyzed in a 1983 car accident. ``Without this
technology, I don't know that I'd be employed. It has given me access
to a career again and the ability to control my life.''
Earl Cutler, a 50-year-old blind account service representative for
Fingerhut, the Minnetonka, Minn.-based cataloger and database
marketer, is amazed by how computers and related technology have made
it possible for people with disabilities to do so many jobs.
``I'm sorry that I'm not 25 years younger,'' said Cutler, who uses an
Alva Braille display to read his computer screen's display line by
line. ``It's great that blind people and others with disabilities have
all these employment possibilities. My prospects getting out of high
school were pretty bleak. All this technology has opened up a lot of
possibilities.''
Unemployment among the disabled has always been high.
The U.S. Census Department estimated that unemployment was running at
74 percent among the 14.2 million working-age Americans with severe
disabilities in 1994. And many who have jobs work in shelters and
programs for the disabled.
But more and more employers are looking at the disabled as potential
employees. They're motivated by not just conscience but also a tight
job market and the Americans With Disabilities Act.
Today, though, virtually any disabled person can be made employable to
some degree with technology, said Peggy Locke, director of sales for
AbleNet, which makes products for people with severe disabilities.
``The technology is so advanced that even people with the most severe
disabilities can do something,'' she said. ``Even if it's just hitting
a switch that runs an electric stapler or copy machine, they can
partially participate in a job.''
The cost of technology that enables the disabled to work is falling.
``Ten years ago, voice recognition technology cost about $10,000,''
said Marty Stone, assistant technology engineer for ATEC, an assistive
technology engineering and consulting firm. ``Today, you can get the
application and computer for around $2,000. For $100 you can get voice
recognition software and the top-end program, Dragon Dictate, is about
$500.''
In most cases, it doesn't cost much to accommodate a disabled worker,
said Dennis O'Brien, who manages the IBM group that develops new
technology for the disabled.
``Surveys show that the average cost of accommodation in a corporation
is around $200,'' he said. ``It is insignificant.''
Meanwhile, some amazing technologies to help people with disabilities
are in the works.
A California company, Arkenstone, Inc., for instance, is developing a
service that will tell blind people where they are and how to get to
their destinations. It uses Global Positioning System satellites and
speech-synthesis technology. And Microsoft, Apple, IBM and other
top-tier technology companies are focusing more on making their
mainstream products accessible to people with disabilities. IBM's
O'Brien said Big Blue is working with Sun to make sure Sun's Java
programming language is fully accessible to the disabled.
``We are trying to get it in the early stages, rather than wait and
retrofit it,'' O'Brien said. ``It's important that there be standards
and consistency across all environments.''
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