Thoughts on Assistive Technology

The CoWriter Universal:  The Subscription model: When it comes to Word Prediction Software; none is, perhaps, better marketed than CoWriter by Don Johnston. Like Dragon Naturally Speaking by Nuance is for speech recognition, CoWriter by Don Johnston is often the first thing an AT professional think of when Word Prediction is being discussed.  In case there is still anyone out there that doesn’t know what a Word prediction software is, it’s what we often use when we type on the smartphone and other mobile devices. The little bar above the smartphone keyboard that guesses what we are trying to type is called, Word Prediction; and before the advent of the smart devices and their touch screens, Word Prediction Software had already been widely used by people with disabilities to make typing less of a pain. I first saw CoWriter on ABC News in early 2009, and its selling point was the copious vocabularies it is capable of predicting. It could be used by anyone from K12 to Postgraduat

AT (or AD in Taiwan): A systematic comparison: I have just returned from a two-week vacation in Taiwan (my place of birth); during which I visited three very different disability service institutions. I also had the pleasure of being briefed on about the state of Taiwanese disability services, and how much it has improved since I bid my farewell in 1989.               The first thing I noticed was that in most public men’s room, there was at least one urinal equipped with handrails. Taiwan, like Europe and Japan, is facing the similar problem with aging population. I remember I had 45 classmates in first grade, today, the class size is down to 20. So it makes sense the infrastructure must make allowance for an aging population. Beside urinals, there was also an alarm installed inside the bathroom stalls at the Taipei High-Speed Rail Station, in case someone requires assistance, Also, there are wheelchair-stair-glides installed at newer small shopping centers.