WEBVTT - 9 Helpful Facts About Assistive Technology 0:00:14.560 --> 0:00:17.960 You're listening to part Time Genius, the production of Kaleidoscope 0:00:18.120 --> 0:00:19.120 and iHeartRadio. 0:00:23.920 --> 0:00:24.640 Guess what, Mango? 0:00:24.680 --> 0:00:25.319 What's that will? 0:00:25.640 --> 0:00:28.000 So a lot of us listen to audiobooks these days, 0:00:28.160 --> 0:00:29.960 But something I learned just the other day. Did you 0:00:30.040 --> 0:00:32.760 know that they were created almost one hundred years ago. 0:00:32.880 --> 0:00:36.199 That's right, Mango audiobooks one hundred years ago, and they 0:00:36.200 --> 0:00:39.400 were originally produced specifically for blind people. 0:00:39.440 --> 0:00:42.880 Wait, really, I thought audiobooks were invented like twenty years ago. 0:00:43.280 --> 0:00:46.080 Nope. Actually, back in the early twentieth century, the main 0:00:46.120 --> 0:00:49.239 way for blind people to access written text was braille. 0:00:49.240 --> 0:00:52.000 But you know, braille wasn't widely taught, so most folks 0:00:52.040 --> 0:00:54.440 didn't know it all that well. And after World War 0:00:54.440 --> 0:00:57.000 One there was this influx of soldiers coming home with 0:00:57.120 --> 0:01:00.560 vision impairment from various war injuries. They didn't know how 0:01:00.560 --> 0:01:03.240 to read braille either, so there was this sudden need 0:01:03.280 --> 0:01:06.600 for technology to help them out. Now Conveniently, around the 0:01:06.640 --> 0:01:10.360 same time, there had been this huge advancement in phonograph technology. 0:01:10.920 --> 0:01:13.800 Early records only played five minutes of sound per side, 0:01:13.840 --> 0:01:16.120 but now they could make records that could play up 0:01:16.120 --> 0:01:18.840 to twenty five minutes of sound per side. So an 0:01:18.920 --> 0:01:22.040 organization called the American Foundation for the Blind worked with 0:01:22.080 --> 0:01:25.240 the US government and other organizations, and they produced these 0:01:25.280 --> 0:01:29.040 spoken recordings of famous titles. They called this new medium 0:01:29.480 --> 0:01:30.480 talking books. 0:01:30.640 --> 0:01:34.400 I love a straightforward name. So what did they record first? 0:01:34.840 --> 0:01:37.200 Well, the first talking books, which came out in nineteen 0:01:37.319 --> 0:01:41.320 thirty four, included two Shakespeare plays, The Constitution, you know 0:01:41.360 --> 0:01:45.160 had some good listening, and Washington's Farewell Address. But there 0:01:45.200 --> 0:01:47.680 were also books by popular authors at the time like 0:01:47.760 --> 0:01:51.400 Rudyard Kipling, PG. Woodhouse. And the creators of talking books 0:01:51.400 --> 0:01:54.280 had some disagreement about whether they should focus on serious 0:01:54.280 --> 0:01:56.720 books or things that people might actually be interested in 0:01:56.760 --> 0:01:59.520 listening to. So they decided to compromise a little bit, 0:01:59.520 --> 0:02:01.520 as you could from what we just mentioned there, and 0:02:01.560 --> 0:02:02.840 so they did a little bit of both. 0:02:02.880 --> 0:02:05.880 Yeah, I mean no shade to George Washington's farewell Address, 0:02:05.880 --> 0:02:08.320 but I'd rather curl up with a good novel. 0:02:09.080 --> 0:02:11.000 I agree with you on that. Now you'll be shocked 0:02:11.040 --> 0:02:14.639 to learn that Talking books listeners also agreed with us. 0:02:14.960 --> 0:02:18.520 The audio novels were especially popular, and as the program grew, 0:02:18.600 --> 0:02:22.880 celebrities like Joan Crawford and Ossi Davis they all recorded 0:02:22.880 --> 0:02:26.200 books for these. There was also an actor named Alexander 0:02:26.280 --> 0:02:29.600 Scorby who became famous for his talking books work. He 0:02:29.680 --> 0:02:33.720 recorded over four hundred of these things, including heavy tones 0:02:33.800 --> 0:02:36.639 like the Iliad or in Peace, even the Bible, which 0:02:36.639 --> 0:02:38.200 you can actually still listen to. 0:02:38.720 --> 0:02:42.359 That's an impressive amount of reading and listening, I guess well, 0:02:42.680 --> 0:02:45.440 from talking books to hearing aids to faucets of the future, 0:02:45.520 --> 0:02:50.000 today's episode is all about assistive technology. It's high tech, 0:02:50.120 --> 0:02:53.280 it's low tech, it is every tech in between, and 0:02:53.360 --> 0:02:56.160 it makes life a little easier for millions of people 0:02:56.280 --> 0:02:58.240 every single day. So let's dive in. 0:03:19.320 --> 0:03:21.760 Hey, their podcast listeners, welcome to part time Genius. I'm 0:03:21.760 --> 0:03:24.120 Will Pearson, and as always, I'm here with my good 0:03:24.120 --> 0:03:26.480 friend Mangush hot ticketter and over there in the booth 0:03:26.560 --> 0:03:30.920 recording his audiobook autobiography titled Here It is the Shocking 0:03:30.960 --> 0:03:34.880 true story of a Palain producer. That's our Palain producer, 0:03:35.080 --> 0:03:35.800 Dylan Fagan. 0:03:37.640 --> 0:03:40.080 I cannot wait to listen to that on my next 0:03:40.160 --> 0:03:43.920 road trip at full volume because Dylan talks softly. Okay, 0:03:44.080 --> 0:03:47.119 so quick note before we get started, the terms assistive 0:03:47.240 --> 0:03:51.800 technology and adaptive technology are often used interchangeably, but there 0:03:51.960 --> 0:03:56.160 is a slight difference. Assistive technology includes things that can 0:03:56.200 --> 0:04:00.600 assist anyone. Adaptive tech is specifically designed for people with disabilities, 0:04:00.960 --> 0:04:02.840 and today we'll be talking about both. 0:04:03.440 --> 0:04:06.440 That's exactly right. And while we're mostly talking about innovations 0:04:06.480 --> 0:04:08.840 from the past couple of centuries, it is good to 0:04:08.880 --> 0:04:12.080 remember that assistive and adaptive technology has been around for 0:04:12.200 --> 0:04:16.039 thousands of years because people with disabilities and assistants' needs 0:04:16.080 --> 0:04:17.160 have always existed. 0:04:17.680 --> 0:04:21.200 For example, take the wheelchair. Today, there are all sorts 0:04:21.200 --> 0:04:25.080 of specialized versions, right wheelchairs for athletes, wheelchairs for kids, 0:04:25.160 --> 0:04:28.640 and hands free wheelchairs. But the history of the wheelchair 0:04:28.680 --> 0:04:31.919 actually goes back to China around five twenty five CE, 0:04:32.320 --> 0:04:35.000 and that's the date of the first known representative image 0:04:35.000 --> 0:04:37.520 of a wheelchair. It's a stone carving of a man 0:04:37.600 --> 0:04:40.680 sitting in a chair with three wheels. Now, over the 0:04:40.720 --> 0:04:44.440 next century, wheelchairs gave people mobility, but they didn't provide 0:04:44.520 --> 0:04:48.080 much autonomy. Early wheelchairs had to be pushed by someone else, 0:04:48.160 --> 0:04:52.520 and that bothered a young German watchmaker named Stefan Farfler, 0:04:52.800 --> 0:04:56.120 who had become paraplegic after breaking his back as a kid. 0:04:56.520 --> 0:04:58.839 He was sick of relying on others to get around. 0:04:58.880 --> 0:05:03.039 So in sixteen fifty he built the first self propelled wheelchair. 0:05:03.440 --> 0:05:06.719 It looked like a bulky recumbent tricycle, but it worked 0:05:06.720 --> 0:05:09.560 by turning hand cranks attached to a gear front wheel. 0:05:10.960 --> 0:05:13.679 Of course, he was a watchmaker. He knows his gears right. 0:05:13.760 --> 0:05:17.240 Yeah, he certainly did. Now fast forward to nineteen thirties California, 0:05:17.520 --> 0:05:20.960 there is a mining engineer named Herbert Everest, and he 0:05:21.040 --> 0:05:23.440 too relied on in a wheelchair to get around after being 0:05:23.480 --> 0:05:27.280 paralyzed in an accident. And like Farfler, he had issues 0:05:27.320 --> 0:05:30.400 with his wheelchair, namely because it was really heavy and 0:05:30.560 --> 0:05:33.960 hard to transport. So Everest talked to a mechanical engineer 0:05:34.040 --> 0:05:38.000 named Harry Jennings, and together they designed a new lightweight 0:05:38.000 --> 0:05:42.080 wheelchair that was also foldable. And this X frame wheelchair 0:05:42.320 --> 0:05:44.719 is more or less what the standard wheelchair you see 0:05:44.760 --> 0:05:47.640 in a hospital is based on. And what is so 0:05:47.760 --> 0:05:51.240 cool about these stories is neither Farflur nor Everest were 0:05:51.279 --> 0:05:54.039 trained in this kind of product design, but as people 0:05:54.080 --> 0:05:57.480 with disabilities, they knew firsthand what the problems were and 0:05:57.560 --> 0:05:59.320 they decided to solve them. Well. 0:05:59.360 --> 0:06:01.960 Sticking with the historical angle for our next fact, let's 0:06:01.960 --> 0:06:04.640 talk about ear trumpets, which is just such a great 0:06:04.720 --> 0:06:07.240 name for our product. And now the idea of an 0:06:07.240 --> 0:06:09.760 ear trumpet has been around for hundreds of years and 0:06:09.839 --> 0:06:11.200 actually maybe even more than that. 0:06:11.480 --> 0:06:14.080 It's funny because I really associate them with like the 0:06:14.200 --> 0:06:16.960 nineteenth century, Like didn't Beethoven use them? 0:06:17.279 --> 0:06:19.760 He did, yes, you remember from your history books, and 0:06:20.080 --> 0:06:22.719 that was in their heyday. But there are reports of 0:06:22.760 --> 0:06:25.760 folks using hollowed out horns to help with hearing issues 0:06:25.800 --> 0:06:28.560 as far back as the thirteenth century. So the way 0:06:28.560 --> 0:06:31.240 they work is pretty simple. You can actually picture these things. 0:06:31.279 --> 0:06:34.280 The funnel shape strengthens the impact of sound waves on 0:06:34.320 --> 0:06:37.560 the ear drum, making the sound easier to hear. Now, 0:06:37.600 --> 0:06:40.680 of course, hearing aids have made them obsolete, but unlike 0:06:40.760 --> 0:06:44.200 hearing aids, ear trumpets came in all kinds of incredible 0:06:44.360 --> 0:06:48.520 elaborate designs. So today the largest collection of ear trumpets 0:06:48.520 --> 0:06:51.200 in the world is owned by a man named Michael Briggs. 0:06:51.520 --> 0:06:54.760 He's this retired engineer from England and he's also the 0:06:54.800 --> 0:06:58.080 owner of the website eartrumpets dot net, which, if ear 0:06:58.080 --> 0:07:01.120 trumpets are your thing, that is pro probably worth bookmarking. 0:07:01.120 --> 0:07:03.440 Mango I'm definitely going to check that out right after this. 0:07:03.800 --> 0:07:05.440 How many trumpets does he own. 0:07:05.839 --> 0:07:08.200 So as of this recording, because I feel like he's 0:07:08.240 --> 0:07:10.960 probably going to have more soon. It was five hundred 0:07:10.960 --> 0:07:14.600 and sixty four, and he has some great examples. There's 0:07:14.640 --> 0:07:17.320 this one from nineteen hundred that looks like a beehive, 0:07:17.920 --> 0:07:20.480 or one from eighteen eighty six where the trumpet is 0:07:20.520 --> 0:07:24.120 concealed within a folding fan, another one where the funnel 0:07:24.160 --> 0:07:26.760 is made from a conk shell. But you know, I'm 0:07:26.800 --> 0:07:29.360 partial to the tortoises shell one that has this pair 0:07:29.400 --> 0:07:32.400 of matching glasses attached to the end. It's just pretty 0:07:32.440 --> 0:07:33.120 fun to look at. 0:07:33.520 --> 0:07:36.120 I know, I like the idea of assistive devices as 0:07:36.440 --> 0:07:40.040 basically doubling as fashion accessories Like that feels like a great. 0:07:39.840 --> 0:07:42.840 Thing, totally stylish and functional, sort of the best of 0:07:42.880 --> 0:07:43.680 both worlds. 0:07:44.040 --> 0:07:46.760 So next, I want to talk about a technology that 0:07:46.800 --> 0:07:50.160 has become absolutely much more recently. It was created in 0:07:50.240 --> 0:07:53.320 the nineteen seventies and it was called the opticon. 0:07:53.840 --> 0:07:56.920 That sounds that sounds like something from a sci fi novel. 0:07:57.080 --> 0:08:00.480 Yeah, or like a shape right, Well, it definitely seems futureteristic, 0:08:00.760 --> 0:08:02.880 and it was when it was invented. As you were 0:08:02.880 --> 0:08:05.040 saying at the top of the show, braill is useful, 0:08:05.080 --> 0:08:07.760 but it has limits. So not only do you have 0:08:07.840 --> 0:08:09.840 to know how to read it, someone has to translate 0:08:09.880 --> 0:08:13.080 the original text, which may be possible for books and 0:08:13.160 --> 0:08:16.160 public signage, but not for all the text you encounter 0:08:16.200 --> 0:08:18.640 on a daily basis. Like I was reading an account 0:08:18.680 --> 0:08:21.720 by this woman named Debbie Stein, and she was reflecting 0:08:21.720 --> 0:08:24.000 on her life in the nineteen sixties and early seventies. 0:08:24.200 --> 0:08:27.000 Now Debbie is blind, and she gave the example of 0:08:27.040 --> 0:08:29.480 cleaning out her purse. If she wanted to sort through 0:08:29.480 --> 0:08:32.319 her receipts and old grocery lists in order to decide 0:08:32.360 --> 0:08:34.160 what to keep and what to throw out, she'd have 0:08:34.200 --> 0:08:36.360 to wait until a friend or a paid reader was 0:08:36.400 --> 0:08:37.000 there to help. 0:08:37.440 --> 0:08:39.160 I mean that sounds like a constant hassle. 0:08:39.480 --> 0:08:41.960 Yeah. And so these days there are text to speech 0:08:42.040 --> 0:08:45.720 devices and other technologies that can scan and read written text. 0:08:45.760 --> 0:08:49.920 But back then, people like Debbie were stuck. Enter a 0:08:49.920 --> 0:08:54.000 Stanford electrical engineering professor, his name was John Linville. Now 0:08:54.120 --> 0:08:57.040 John was cited, but his daughter Candy was blind and 0:08:57.480 --> 0:09:00.840 she struggled with limited materials in braille. So in nineteen 0:09:00.880 --> 0:09:03.880 sixty two. With help from his colleagues, John began work 0:09:03.880 --> 0:09:07.040 on a solution, a portable device that could read almost 0:09:07.080 --> 0:09:10.400 any written material, regardless of what or where it was, 0:09:10.960 --> 0:09:14.280 and in the early nineteen seventies the opticon was born. 0:09:14.840 --> 0:09:17.360 So here's how it worked. With one hand, you'd move 0:09:17.360 --> 0:09:19.720 a small camera over the text you wanted to read. 0:09:20.080 --> 0:09:23.040 In your other hand, you'd have a fingertip sized receiver 0:09:23.440 --> 0:09:26.679 filled with one hundred and forty four tiny metal rods. 0:09:26.880 --> 0:09:29.959 When the camera scanned the text, the opticon would convert 0:09:30.080 --> 0:09:34.320 each letter or symbol to a specific vibration pattern that 0:09:34.440 --> 0:09:36.800 was sent to the rods, which you would then detect 0:09:36.880 --> 0:09:37.439 with your finger. 0:09:38.040 --> 0:09:39.720 So I'm trying to understand how this works. So would 0:09:39.720 --> 0:09:41.920 you feel the shape of the words or what? 0:09:42.320 --> 0:09:44.920 Basically like? It took some practice to get the hang 0:09:44.960 --> 0:09:47.040 of it. In fact, a two week training course was 0:09:47.080 --> 0:09:50.240 required with each purchase, but for people who learned it 0:09:50.240 --> 0:09:53.520 it was life changing. Like Debbie, you know, the one 0:09:53.520 --> 0:09:56.160 with the clutter purse. She got her first opticon in 0:09:56.240 --> 0:09:59.040 nineteen seventy seven, and while she said it was slower 0:09:59.080 --> 0:10:01.600 than using braille, it gave her access to a lot 0:10:01.640 --> 0:10:04.959 more text so she could read whatever she wanted whenever 0:10:05.000 --> 0:10:08.319 she wanted, not just magazines or newspapers, but like bills 0:10:08.400 --> 0:10:11.720 or flyers, menus, LP jackets, basically anything. 0:10:12.000 --> 0:10:13.880 This guy's a lemon. I feel like you should keep naming, 0:10:14.000 --> 0:10:14.600 just keep going. 0:10:15.920 --> 0:10:19.280 Well almost deb said the only thing that optacons struggled 0:10:19.320 --> 0:10:22.920 with was cursive writing, but clearprint was generally fine. So 0:10:22.960 --> 0:10:24.360 if you're going to write her a letter, you had 0:10:24.400 --> 0:10:27.200 to do it neatly, which is probably good advice anyway, 0:10:27.240 --> 0:10:27.560 I think. 0:10:28.720 --> 0:10:30.760 All right, so what you said, this is obsolete now, 0:10:30.760 --> 0:10:33.800 though like it sounds like it could still be pretty handy, right, Yeah. 0:10:33.840 --> 0:10:38.120 I mean a company called Telesensory Systems manufactured and sold 0:10:38.160 --> 0:10:41.439 opticons for a couple of decades, but they discontinued them 0:10:41.480 --> 0:10:45.320 in nineteen ninety six as optical character readers became more popular. 0:10:45.920 --> 0:10:48.160 If you dig around on eBay, though, you can still 0:10:48.240 --> 0:10:50.120 find some vintage opticons out there. 0:10:50.760 --> 0:10:52.640 That's very cool. All right, we have to take a 0:10:52.679 --> 0:10:56.920 quick break. But when we come back, synthesized voices, future faucets, 0:10:56.960 --> 0:11:00.720 and the assistive technology that was so powerful started its 0:11:00.760 --> 0:11:18.400 own effect. Don't go anywhere. Welcome back to part time Genius, 0:11:18.400 --> 0:11:21.120 where we're talking about assistive technology. All right, mego, I 0:11:21.160 --> 0:11:23.400 got a question for you. How many times a day 0:11:23.480 --> 0:11:24.760 do you use the sink? 0:11:28.800 --> 0:11:31.720 I mean, wash my hands, brush my teeth, and glass 0:11:31.720 --> 0:11:34.160 of water? I don't know, maybe a dozen times. 0:11:35.080 --> 0:11:37.320 Yeah, we don't always think about them, but the fact 0:11:37.400 --> 0:11:40.440 is we all depend on faucets. Now. The problem is, 0:11:40.720 --> 0:11:42.800 if you have a spinal cord injury or something that 0:11:42.880 --> 0:11:46.440 limits your arm or hand mobility, standard faucets might not 0:11:46.600 --> 0:11:49.640 work well for you. Of course, there are motion sensor faucets, 0:11:49.640 --> 0:11:52.400 as you probably know, but those aren't perfect either. 0:11:53.040 --> 0:11:54.840 Yeah, I know. I mean I feel like I was 0:11:54.920 --> 0:11:59.040 in airports this week trying to get the sinks and 0:11:59.280 --> 0:12:01.240 the motion tests with work, and you've just spent so 0:12:01.320 --> 0:12:03.400 much time like waving your hand into these things. Yeah. 0:12:03.480 --> 0:12:05.440 Yeah, you got to find the combo of the sink 0:12:05.520 --> 0:12:08.160 that works and the soap dispenser that works, So you 0:12:08.280 --> 0:12:11.400 end up like just waving it under the soap then squirts, 0:12:11.440 --> 0:12:13.040 then you move on to the wrong sink and it's 0:12:13.040 --> 0:12:16.400 just but anyway, but think about the nozzle too, Like 0:12:16.440 --> 0:12:19.400 it points straight down, which works for washing your hands, 0:12:19.400 --> 0:12:21.920 but isn't great if you have limited mobility and you're 0:12:21.920 --> 0:12:24.200 trying to wash your face or brush your teeth. 0:12:24.880 --> 0:12:26.800 Yeah. I actually I hadn't thought of that, but I 0:12:26.800 --> 0:12:28.360 can see how that would be a problem. 0:12:28.559 --> 0:12:30.720 Yeah, and it's a problem that a new faucet called 0:12:30.720 --> 0:12:33.800 the Access H two O is actually trying to solve. 0:12:34.200 --> 0:12:36.280 So what's cool about it is instead of just one 0:12:36.280 --> 0:12:38.760 way to control the water and one way to access it, 0:12:38.800 --> 0:12:41.320 there are multiple options and it really depends on the 0:12:41.400 --> 0:12:43.360 user's needs and their various abilities. 0:12:43.760 --> 0:12:46.439 That's really interesting. So tell me how does this work. 0:12:47.120 --> 0:12:49.560 Well, it's not available to the public just yet, so 0:12:49.679 --> 0:12:51.560 most of what I know comes from this study that 0:12:51.640 --> 0:12:55.079 was published last year. But according to that study, there 0:12:55.080 --> 0:12:57.520 are three ways to activate the faucet and adjust the 0:12:57.559 --> 0:13:01.120 temperature and the water volume. There's a motion sensor, an 0:13:01.160 --> 0:13:04.040 I gay sensor, and a voice sensor, so you can 0:13:04.120 --> 0:13:06.839 choose what works best for you. Plus there are different 0:13:06.920 --> 0:13:10.360 nozzle options. There's the downward facing nozzle and two on 0:13:10.400 --> 0:13:12.480 the top that can point up and can be used 0:13:12.480 --> 0:13:14.920 like a drinking fountain or you know, for washing your 0:13:14.960 --> 0:13:17.640 face or something like that. It's all still in development. 0:13:17.679 --> 0:13:20.319 So the study was testing its effectiveness with a group 0:13:20.360 --> 0:13:24.120 of eighteen people with various spinal cord injuries. So with 0:13:24.200 --> 0:13:26.800 standard faucets, most of the people needed some level of 0:13:26.840 --> 0:13:30.120 assistance for drinking or rinsing their mouths or even washing 0:13:30.120 --> 0:13:33.280 their faces. But with the access H two O faucet, 0:13:33.400 --> 0:13:36.640 almost all of the testers could do these tasks independently, 0:13:36.679 --> 0:13:37.480 which is pretty great. 0:13:38.120 --> 0:13:40.560 You know, what I'm really taking from my conversation today 0:13:40.800 --> 0:13:44.360 is the best assistive tech lets people do the things 0:13:44.360 --> 0:13:46.400 they need and want to do on their own terms. 0:13:46.480 --> 0:13:49.480 Right, Yeah, that's exactly right. It's all about allowing people 0:13:49.520 --> 0:13:51.960 to live their lives as autonomously as possible. 0:13:52.640 --> 0:13:55.439 So another new device in this vein is something called 0:13:55.480 --> 0:13:59.560 the Obi robot. Obi's creators call it assistive tech for 0:13:59.720 --> 0:14:02.920 inde pendant dining, and it is for people who can 0:14:03.040 --> 0:14:05.800 chew and swallow on their own, but have trouble with 0:14:05.880 --> 0:14:09.360 the mechanics of feeding themselves. Because if you're relying on 0:14:09.400 --> 0:14:12.320 a caregiver to like help you eat, not only do 0:14:12.400 --> 0:14:15.280 you not necessarily get to choose when to eat, you 0:14:15.360 --> 0:14:17.240 might not get to choose the exact bite you wanted 0:14:17.320 --> 0:14:19.640 at that moment or the piece you want to eat at. 0:14:20.400 --> 0:14:23.200 Which I know can be incredibly frustrating and losing that 0:14:23.280 --> 0:14:26.480 independence and making those choices. So how does the OBI work. 0:14:26.800 --> 0:14:30.560 Put Simply, it mimics the human arm, So it does 0:14:30.600 --> 0:14:33.800 require another person to put spoon sized food into one 0:14:33.960 --> 0:14:36.720 or all of its four bowls, but then Obi takes 0:14:36.720 --> 0:14:39.440 it from there. The robotic arm connects to a spoon 0:14:39.640 --> 0:14:41.840 or a spork, It scoops up a bite of food 0:14:41.920 --> 0:14:43.440 and then brings it to your mouth. 0:14:43.640 --> 0:14:46.400 And the person eating is controlling all of this or what? 0:14:47.040 --> 0:14:50.120 Yeah? Exactly? They can choose which bowl Obi takes from 0:14:50.200 --> 0:14:53.160 and when they take the bite. And also it's portable, 0:14:53.200 --> 0:14:55.280 so you can take it to restaurants or a friend's house, 0:14:55.400 --> 0:14:57.960 or you can use it whenever you'd like. There's this 0:14:58.040 --> 0:15:01.000 example from one user, a ten year old girl. She 0:15:01.160 --> 0:15:03.400 said one of the things she liked about OBI was 0:15:03.440 --> 0:15:05.880 that now she could join the school book club, which 0:15:05.920 --> 0:15:08.720 meant during lunchtimes, she could bring Obi with her to 0:15:08.760 --> 0:15:11.160 the meeting and eat her meal with everyone else, all 0:15:11.200 --> 0:15:13.240 while they hung out and talked about books. 0:15:13.520 --> 0:15:15.320 Hey, you got to love anything that makes it easier 0:15:15.320 --> 0:15:17.400 to join a book club. I think that's top of 0:15:17.440 --> 0:15:19.600 the list there. But all right, mego, So for my 0:15:19.680 --> 0:15:23.240 next fact, I want to talk about augmentative and alternative 0:15:23.320 --> 0:15:27.920 communication or AAC. Now, the term actually encompasses any way 0:15:28.000 --> 0:15:30.960 you might communicate without speech, like even physical gestures. But 0:15:31.240 --> 0:15:34.200 I'm going to focus here on something called aided modes, 0:15:34.280 --> 0:15:38.760 which refers to using a device that assists in communication. Now, 0:15:38.800 --> 0:15:41.600 the overarching goal of AAC is to give someone with 0:15:41.640 --> 0:15:45.160 speech disabilities a way to communicate, either through words or 0:15:45.200 --> 0:15:49.480 expressing emotions or opinions like indicating yes or no. Now, 0:15:49.480 --> 0:15:52.600 when it comes to aided AAC, perhaps the most famous 0:15:52.640 --> 0:15:56.160 example is Stephen Hawking. So Hawking had als and had 0:15:56.200 --> 0:15:58.280 of course lost the ability to speak, and this was 0:15:58.320 --> 0:16:01.120 back in nineteen eighty five. So he used a computer 0:16:01.200 --> 0:16:04.280 system where he could select letters, words, even phrases on 0:16:04.320 --> 0:16:07.560 a screen and a synthesized voice would speak them. Now, 0:16:07.600 --> 0:16:10.400 after losing the ability to press the switch with his hands, 0:16:10.400 --> 0:16:13.280 he began using his cheek muscle to control the selection. 0:16:13.800 --> 0:16:16.320 But what I actually find most interesting is that he 0:16:16.440 --> 0:16:19.280 used the exact same voice for the rest of his life, 0:16:19.680 --> 0:16:22.320 and even when his software became outdated, he didn't want 0:16:22.360 --> 0:16:24.480 to give it up. And I kind of see that, right, like, 0:16:24.520 --> 0:16:27.400 there was the voice that we all associated so strongly 0:16:27.480 --> 0:16:28.200 with Stephen Hawking. 0:16:28.920 --> 0:16:30.960 In some ways, I totally get that, because, like, you 0:16:31.000 --> 0:16:33.960 want that continuity. But I'm also kind of surprised like 0:16:34.200 --> 0:16:37.400 someone in that position, you know, a professor, a scholar, 0:16:37.560 --> 0:16:41.120 like public intellectual, like, it also feels like you might 0:16:41.160 --> 0:16:44.400 want to keep your cutting edge and it's funny that 0:16:44.440 --> 0:16:45.880 you relied on older technology. 0:16:46.440 --> 0:16:48.520 Yeah, it was kind of interesting to hear him talk 0:16:48.560 --> 0:16:51.480 about this. So when he was asked about this, he said, quote, 0:16:51.960 --> 0:16:53.760 I keep it because I have not heard a voice 0:16:53.800 --> 0:16:56.080 I like better, and because I have identified with it. 0:16:56.440 --> 0:16:58.000 And if you think about it, your voice is such 0:16:58.040 --> 0:17:00.960 a strong personal thing, like it's of who you are, 0:17:01.000 --> 0:17:03.240 and so it'd be tough to give up a voice 0:17:03.280 --> 0:17:05.840 just for a software update, you know. But here's the thing. 0:17:05.880 --> 0:17:08.960 There are millions of people with communication disabilities, and not 0:17:09.160 --> 0:17:12.560 everyone has access to high tech AAC devices like the 0:17:12.600 --> 0:17:15.959 custom Intel setup that Hawking was using, and people who 0:17:16.000 --> 0:17:18.919 aren't as famous as Hawking often run into other challenges 0:17:19.320 --> 0:17:21.560 like people getting impatient with the time it takes for 0:17:21.640 --> 0:17:24.920 them to express themselves, or people assume that a lack 0:17:24.960 --> 0:17:27.600 of verbal ability indicates a lack of intelligence. 0:17:28.000 --> 0:17:28.159 You know. 0:17:28.200 --> 0:17:31.800 So while there is incredible AAC technology out there, it 0:17:31.840 --> 0:17:34.080 only makes an impact if people who need it have 0:17:34.280 --> 0:17:37.119 access to it. And if people are given the time 0:17:37.160 --> 0:17:39.800 in the space, they need to communicate in their own way, 0:17:40.040 --> 0:17:42.080 you know, whether they want to talk about theoretical physics 0:17:42.240 --> 0:17:43.719 or the latest Marvel movie. 0:17:44.080 --> 0:17:46.560 Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Well, we did 0:17:46.640 --> 0:17:48.240 say at the beginning of the show that we talk 0:17:48.280 --> 0:17:51.919 about some low tech, and this next tech is about 0:17:52.040 --> 0:17:54.720 as low as it gets. I'm referring, of course, to 0:17:55.000 --> 0:17:58.560 the curb cut. So you know those little inclines that 0:17:58.680 --> 0:18:01.560 lead from the street to the sidewalk or vice versa. 0:18:01.720 --> 0:18:05.480 The first intentional curb cut was built in Kalamazoo, Michigan, 0:18:05.600 --> 0:18:08.600 in nineteen forty five. But the movement that really made 0:18:08.640 --> 0:18:11.879 curb cuts such an integral part of American sidewalks happened 0:18:11.880 --> 0:18:15.120 in Berkeley in the nineteen sixties. It was a lot 0:18:15.160 --> 0:18:19.240 of progressive activism in Berkeley at that time, and among 0:18:19.320 --> 0:18:21.520 the people calling for change was a group of students 0:18:21.520 --> 0:18:25.920 with disabilities. And for all the peace and love going 0:18:25.960 --> 0:18:29.840 around Berkeley, sidewalks were not accessible for wheelchair users, so 0:18:29.920 --> 0:18:32.080 people had to roll down the street hoping they didn't 0:18:32.080 --> 0:18:33.080 get hit by a car. 0:18:33.560 --> 0:18:34.640 It must have been terrifying. 0:18:35.280 --> 0:18:38.200 Yeah, I mean, these activists call themselves the Rolling Quads, 0:18:38.240 --> 0:18:40.760 and they did whatever they could to make themselves heard. 0:18:40.880 --> 0:18:43.199 There are even stories about members blowing up curbs and 0:18:43.240 --> 0:18:45.919 installing their own ramps in the dead of night as protests, 0:18:45.920 --> 0:18:48.320 and some of these stories are probably exaggerated, but the 0:18:48.320 --> 0:18:51.040 point stands right like, the city needed to change, and 0:18:51.400 --> 0:18:55.520 thanks to these activists work, in nineteen seventy two, Berkeley 0:18:55.600 --> 0:18:58.920 finally installed its first curb cut, right on the edge 0:18:58.960 --> 0:19:02.840 of the university campus on Telegraph and Bancroft, and the 0:19:02.880 --> 0:19:06.520 disability rights movement kept up the pressure and slowly other 0:19:06.560 --> 0:19:09.960 cities began to install curb cuts as well, and finally, 0:19:09.960 --> 0:19:12.800 in nineteen ninety the Americans with Disabilities Act made curb 0:19:12.840 --> 0:19:16.080 cuts mandatory in a lot of places. The law is 0:19:16.160 --> 0:19:19.360 not perfect. I'm sure you've seen examples of sidewalks without them, 0:19:19.400 --> 0:19:21.280 but it has made a huge difference. 0:19:21.800 --> 0:19:24.000 You know, for most of my life, I didn't really 0:19:24.040 --> 0:19:26.399 have to pay attention to curb cuts, but you know, 0:19:26.440 --> 0:19:30.080 once you have kids, and especially kids in strollers, like 0:19:30.160 --> 0:19:33.240 that makes you really notice them and you know where 0:19:33.240 --> 0:19:34.439 they were and where they weren't. 0:19:35.119 --> 0:19:37.600 Yeah, same, And that's one of the great things about 0:19:37.600 --> 0:19:40.320 this humble dip in the pavement right. It is like 0:19:40.520 --> 0:19:44.600 such a great example of assistive technology because it helps 0:19:44.640 --> 0:19:48.479 people with strollers, people using walkers, people pushing carts or 0:19:48.520 --> 0:19:52.320 carrying luggage. Right, Like curb cuts basically make life easier 0:19:52.320 --> 0:19:54.960 for everyone, so much so that there's even a term 0:19:55.000 --> 0:19:57.760 for it, the curb cut effect. It's the idea that 0:19:57.840 --> 0:20:00.320 if you design for all abilities, you actually make a 0:20:00.320 --> 0:20:01.720 better product for everyone. 0:20:01.960 --> 0:20:04.679 Well, speaking of inclusive design, the last item on our 0:20:04.720 --> 0:20:07.640 list is another example of something that's become so much 0:20:07.680 --> 0:20:10.440 more than it was initially meant to be. I'm talking, 0:20:10.480 --> 0:20:12.280 of course, about closed captions. 0:20:13.119 --> 0:20:15.639 Yeah, I mean, even if you're a hearing person. Captions 0:20:15.720 --> 0:20:17.720 are great when you're trying to watch a show without 0:20:17.800 --> 0:20:20.920 waking someone up, or if you're watching something in another language, 0:20:21.000 --> 0:20:23.320 or even with like a thick British accent. 0:20:23.359 --> 0:20:26.639 I feel like it's helpful, super helpful, you know. So 0:20:26.680 --> 0:20:29.520 a couple quick definitions because the terminology is a little 0:20:29.560 --> 0:20:33.960