A PERSONAL COMPUTER CONTROLLER FOR MULTI-HANDICAPPED BLIND INDIVIDUALS

PERSONAL COMPUTERS ARE NORMALLY CONTROLLED BY ENTERING DATA INTO A KEYBOARD AND MONITORING THE RESULTS ON A VIDEO TERMINAL. MANY PEOPLE WHO ARE PHYSICALLY HANDICAPPED CANNOTUSE KEYBOARDS AND VIDEO TERMINALS ARE NOT SUITABLE FOR THE BLIND. EXISTING DEVICES WHICH HELP THE HANDICAPPED OVERCOMETHESE BARRIERS ARE EITHER SLOW AND CUMBERSOME OR USE CUSTOM SOFTWARE WHICH RESTRICTS THEIR USE. WESTEST ENGINEERING HAS DEVELOPED AN ELECTRONIC CONTROLLER WHICH REPLACES THE COMPUTER KEYBOARD. THIS DEVICE IS INEXPENSIVE, CAN BE USED BY EVEN SEVERELY HANDICAPPED PEOPLE AND, MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL, CAN BE USED WITH ALL EXISTING PERSONAL COMPUTER SOFTWARE. THE PRIMARY GOAL OF THIS PROJECT IS TO ADAPT THIS CONTROLLERSO THAT IT CAN BE USED BY THE BLIND AND THE MULTI-HANDICAPPED BLIND. THIS WILL BE DONE BY USING VOICE SYNTHESIS TECHNOLOGY TO PROVIDE BOTH AN AUDIO FEEDBACK OF INPUT DATA AND AN AUDIO OUTPUT OF VIDEO DISPLAYS. PHASE I WILL PROVIDE BASIC ENGINEERING DATA AND A WORKING PROTOTYPE. FIELD TESTING AND USER INTEGRATION WILL BE ACCOMPLISHED UNDER PHASE II. THE FINAL GOAL OF THE PROJECT IS THE DEVELOPMENT OF A COMMERCIALLY VIABLE UNIT WHICH CAN PROVIDE BOTH THE BLIND AND THE MULTI-HANDICAPPED BLIND WITH FULL ACCESS TO PERSONAL COMPUTERS.