Infrared Beams and Reflective Forehead Dots

Today was a class that seemed less like school and more like an entertaining infomercial! (I happen to love infomercials by the way) Deb shared her vast knowledge and expertise around those devices that are supportive to those people with low incidence disabilities - such as blindness, MS, and other conditions that rob the body of its natural ability to function. The demonstrations she gave were excellent and informative. I learned a tremendous amount from the visual displays of the ways the devices work. Deb also was able to answer questions from the group with the ease that can only come from knowing her stuff inside and out!

I was particularly fascinated by the infrared headset that helped move the cursor based on head movement and responded to puffs of air to click. It was neat to hear that the technology for that and the reflective dots originated from the military. I also was very interested in her discussion about voice activated technology that has some of its roots in the business world. It was heartening to hear that the costs for these devices have come down considerably throughout the years and are now more affordable for those who need them.

The information she provided about the keyboards and switches was very helpful and made some of the technology I have seen around the school I teach at make more sense to me. I also enjoyed the demonstration on the simple things that we can do just with word processing programs like Microsoft Word--such as changing the background for different disabilities.
Overall it was an excellent class which really packed a ton of information into a short time. I will probably think of ten more things I want to say after I sign off this blog! I guess I will save my comments for others' blogs.

Tracy