6.811: Principles and Practice of Assistive Technology

Resources and Links

Interesting Readings and Articles

  • Francie Latour, "A talk with Graham Pullin: Why prosthetics should be beautiful," The Boston Globe, March 15, 2009
  • Design Meets Disability by Graham Pullin (published by MIT Press)

    Technical Resources

  • MIT TLL Problem Solving Roadmap
  • MIT TLL Modeling Roadmap
  • MIT TLL Communication Roadmap
  • MIT 6.S083: Building Mobile Applications , App Inventor for Android
  • NSF Engineering Senior Design Projects to Aid Persons with Disabilities
    NSF supports a program for student engineers to cover supplies, equipment, and fabrication costs for assistive technologies. Approximately 15 U.S. universities participate and, since 1989, a book has been compiled with two-page papers describing the design, solution, and results. (Approximately 100 projects were in the 2008 edition.)
  • One Switch UK
    A collection of simple computer games that can be played with just one switch input.
  • Shapeways 3D Printing, 3D-printing-as-a-service
  • danger!awesome, laser-cutting and etching studio in Central Square
  • OpenSim Community, part of the National Center for Siumlation in Rehabilitation Research (NCSRR)

    • Disability Resources

  • MIT Student Disability Services: Etiquette for Communicating with People with Disabilities
  • The Commonwealth of Massachusetts' Disability Law Center
    This is Massachusetts' Protection and Advocacy group for people with disabilities. "These good folks can help you understand your rights, and may be able to help you secure employment (and possibly training) in your field of choice."
  • The Commonwealth of Massachusetts' Executive Office of Health and Human Services' list of Blindness and Vision Impairment resources.
    "These resources are dedicated to raising awareness of resources for individuals with vision impairment, legal blindness or deaf/blindness and intellectual disability."

    • Principles of Assistive Technology

  • World Health Organization: International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF)

    Commercially Available Assistive Technology Resources

  • TASH Mini Relax Switch
  • Enabling Devices
    This is a good source for switches and other basic assistive devices.
  • Spaulding Rehabilitation Network's (SRN) Assistive Technology Center in Boston

    Events and Competitions

  • Wireless RERC's App Factory annual Call for Proposals - 'Each year, the Wireless RERC's App Factory invites experienced organizations or individual developers based in the U.S. to submit proposals for financial support to develop assistive and/or accessibility apps for mobile platforms (e.g., Android, Blackberry 10, iOS, Windows Phone). Apps developed through this program include AccessNote by the American Foundation for the Blind, BrailleTouch by BrailleTech, LLC, and Sprint ID Accessibility Packs, Currency Identifier, and IDEAL Group Reader by Apps4Android.
    The App Factory will release its 2013-14 Call for Proposals on April 8, 2013. Submissions are due on June 30, and selection of proposals for funding will be on October 15, 2013. More information can be found at the link noted above.'
  • AbilityOne© design challenge - the university deadline is Wednesday, 17 April 2013 at 5pm
  • 2012 Boston Accessibility Conference, Cambridge - to be held 15 September 2012
  • Change People's Lives Conference, Boston, September 23, 2011

    • Resources on Usability

  • User Edit: Finding usability issues and erorrs in documentation (courtesy Chris Laroche)

    Other Relevant Subjects at MIT and Elsewhere

  • 2.S97, Designing For People (You can also search the MIT Course Catalog at http://student.mit.edu/searchiap/fs-2-S97.html for this course. Most MIT courses utilize Stellar when establishing their on-line presence (Stellar is the platform for learning and course management serving the MIT community.). You can search for any course at MIT by going to http://stellar.mit.edu/index.html and looking up the MIT subject number.
  • 2.009 Product Engineering Processes
  • 6.170 Software Studio
  • 6.141 Robotics: Science & Systems
  • 6.813/6.831 User Interface Design & Implementation
  • 6.S078 Entrepreneurship Project
  • 6.S976 FounderÂs Journey
  • ESD.051J Engineering Innovation & Design
  • D-Lab
  • EC.721 Wheelchair Design
  • EC.722 Prosthetics
  • MAS.600 Human 2.0
  • MAS.863J How to Make (Almost) Anything
  • MIT: Water Jet Technologies (MIT Hobby Shop with past projects at The Boston Home and the Protestant Guild Learning Center), Ken Stone
  • MIT: Wheelchair Design in Developing Countries, Amos Winter, Amy Smith
  • Rutgers University: MAE 473: Design of Assistive Devices, Kathryn Higgins
  • Stanford University: ENGR110/210: Perspectives in Assistive Technology, David Jaffe and Drew Nelson

    Resource Links from Textbook

  • Abledata
  • AbleLink Technologies
  • American Occupational Therapy Association
  • Assistive Technology Industry Association (ATIA)
  • Association for the Advancement of Assistive Technology in Europe (AAATE)
  • AT&T Natural Voices demo
  • AT&T Natural Voices demo
  • Australian Association of Occupational Therapists
  • Australian Rehabilitation and Assistive Technology Association (ARATA)
  • Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists
  • Cepstral (Synthetic Voices)
  • Closing the Gap (CTG)
  • CSUN Conference
  • DECtalk, MIT lab
  • E-triloquist
  • Freedom Scientific
  • Temple University Institute on Disabilities: Augmentative Communication On-line Users' Group (ACOLUG)
  • International Seating Symposium
  • International Society for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (ISAAC)
  • Invacare Corporation
  • Microsoft Accessibility