Communications of the ACM
Engineering Universal Access For Learning
Jeff Gittens works in Bowie State Universitys Office of Disability Support Services.
Photo courtesy of Bowie State University
Bowie State University is promoting a universal design for learning to overcome the technological, social, and psychological barriers to equal education. The university is researching adaptive technology applications and is collaborating with researchers at the University of Illinois to combine image processing, facial recognition, and natural speech technology in a new tool for interpreting and describing graphic images.
Michael Hughes with Bowie State's Office of Disability Support Services says the theory of universal design helps to understand why it is useful to think of someone who is blind and another with dyslexia both as having difficulty processing visual information. Bowie State's research found that text-to-speech software developed for the visually-impaired would be helpful for people with certain learning disabilities.
"Today's computers and software could make it relatively inexpensive for a college to provide in-room captioning for people with hearing problems and pictures, text, and streaming video that any student could download from the Internet," Hughes says. "Technology that provides access for the disabled helps everyone else too."
From Diverse Education
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