- Preface
- I. A new era
- • Globalization, the first sign of change
- • English - the new planetary language
- • A change in the scale of education
- II. Education and its context
- • Education and business
- • Education and the state
- III. The digital habit
- • The new digital culture
- • Digital projects
- • Time for assimilation
- IV. The extended school
- • Education at a critical moment
- • A definition of the extended school
- • Yesterday: concentrated knowledge
- • Today: knowledge disseminated
- • Tomorrow: knowledge connected
- V. New tools and old
- • Chalk and blackboard
- • The spinning globe
- • Microscopic life
- • Desk and work
- • The computer garden
- • Slides and liquid Crystal
- • Projectors and projections
- • Dry and digital copies
- VI. Digital transition
- • Continuing education
- • Cultural exchange
- • The mental switch
- • Critical thought
- • Internal communication
- • Educational frontier posts
- • Technological updating
- • Creativity and deregulation
- VII. Means and ends
- • Values for today and for always
- • Technocentrality and consumerism
- • Software in the public domain
- VIII. The digital library
- • Atoms versus bits
- • The dual book
- • Digital quality
- • Reading and writing
- • Text and hypertext
- • Consult and navigate
- IX. The home computer
- • A new piece of furniture or a new instrument?
- • Playthings and electronic toys
- • Robots for assembly
- • The silent printer
- • The community network
- X. New instruments of thought
- • Word processors, a new way of writing
- • A friendly mouse
- • More portable learning
- • Designing with computers
- • The golden link in communications: the modem
- • Electronic mail always arrives at its destination
- • Fax, a threatened species
- • WWW: three magic letters
- • Reliable and accessible data bases
- • Tables, abacus and spreadsheet
- • The Scanner, a bridge between two worlds
- • New interfaces and old keyboards
- • Presentation aids
- • So-called multimedia
- • Digital cameras without film
- • Digital videos in schools
- • Music for all
- XI. Presence and remote presence
- • Features of distance education
- • The three generations
- • Synchronous and asynchronous moments
- • Spaces for meeting
- • Classrooms open to the world
- • The advantages
- • New educational niches
- • A new type of teacher and student
- XII. Talents and handicaps
- • The right to communication
- • The obstacle of the keyboard
- • The obstacle of the screen
- • The expression of individual talent
- Conclusions
XII. TALENTS AND HANDICAPS
The obstacle of the keyboard
The computer keyboard is the first obstacle encountered by a student with motor deficiencies. In many cases a larger keyboard is all that is necessary to facilitate the task. In other cases, where hand and finger movements are restricted, it is advisable to use smaller keyboards that can fit in the palm of the hand. Other users suffering form involuntary, uncontrollable hand movements can solve this problem by using a transparent keyboard protector with perforations that enables the desired key to be pressed without touching its neighbors. There are also software systems that allow all functions to be controlled with just one finger (the Macintosh "easy access" for example). In more serious cases, where hands are totally immobilized, the keyboard can be eliminated completely, replacing it with a "virtual keyboard" on the computer screen. In this case users activate keys using an electronic pointer controlled by head movements, say. Otherwise use can be made of a cursor that moves across the screen at a constant speed, halting at a word, symbol or phrase by the activation of a switch. This is the method chosen by Stephen Hawking, the famous English physicist, quadriplegic and no longer able to speak, to write and communicate. A voice synthesizer installed in the computer converts text into synthesized speech. He is thus able to lecture and communicate in his daily life with amazing results.
Such computerized prostheses are very common, and there are more than a hundred types of voice synthesizer available on the market. Most are for the English language (providing multiple options, such as child, adult, male and female voices), but they also exist in other languages. This means that anything entering into a computer can be output in voice format, and instead of reading text it can be heard at the most appropriate output speed. Voice synthesizers are of considerable help to persons with reading disabilities and the blind and visually impaired, as we will see below.
When users are able to speak, vocal access via microphones may also be used in replacement of the keyboard. In such cases voice recognition systems must be added to the computer. Users repeat the same word, letter, symbol or number a number of times until the machine learns to recognize them. Some commercial models only recognize their own master's voice, but more universal systems are already available.
As well as writing, voice recognition systems can be used to do such amazing things as perform drawings on the basis of voice commands. We have been privileged to observe a quadriplegic architect able to design complex building projects using his own voice. Never before had used the cerebral area of language to draw. In this instance the computer had to act as a true intellectual prosthesis. This exemplary case in many senses helped to open our minds to the humanitarian applications of digital machines in modern society. In addition, it demonstrated that we can all become accustomed to working in unison with hands and voices with a properly equipped computer.
