Accessible Making for Assistive Technology

主流技术的设计方式往往将残疾人排除在外。这反过来又需要辅助技术(AT)。更笼统地说，AT指的是使残疾人能够完成他们原本无法完成的任务的物品和技术。*个人规模的制造是大规模生产的替代方案，它使用3D打印机和其他设备，以及数字电子设计和各种其他材料来创建不同类型的可定制对象。在过去的十年里，个人规模的制造和DIY(DIY)方法都被认为是设计AT和将AT部署给将从中受益的用户的一种替代和潜在的更好的方法。这些AT涵盖了一系列的复杂性，从没有移动部件的静态物体(如杯托和开门器)，一直到数字交互设备，如语音生成设备(SGD)，只有很少或没有功能性语言的个人可以使用。*这些DIY-AT技术确实很有前途；它们提供了绕过AT的一些最大问题的可能性：遗弃(尽管它们通常很昂贵和/或需要很长时间才能获得)；未能满足用户需求(尽管临床医生进行了仔细的评估)；未能满足其用户的需求，以及其用户被边缘化(在其设计/采购过程中)。*在DIY-AT得到更广泛的应用之前，还有许多挑战需要解决。这项研究的重点是一个重要的挑战，如果不是最重要的挑战：DIY-AT，表面上是为了使残疾人受益，但仍然将这些人边缘化，因为制造本身往往是无法获得的。*本项目专注于为具有挑战性的DIY-ATS制作无障碍工具：那些交互式数字设备。这些设备使用低成本的单板计算机(如Arduino和Raspberry PI)，它们使用软件模块和3D打印组件，它们需要组装电子设备*这个项目将回答有关设计和制造DIY-ATS的新接口、技术和系统的优缺点的问题。为此，该项目将与社区团体接触，并共同为一套新的DIY-AT建立学习模块。我们有信心做到这一点，因为我们已经做了两次了。该项目将研究和学习残疾人如何使用它们。附带的好处是，DIY-AT设计和学习模块将由该项目生成，任何想使用它们的人都可以免费使用它们。所获得的知识将用于许多方面：改进现有计算机界面和系统的设计，改进STEM学习，以及改善残疾人确定他们使用和定制的AT类型的方式。

The way mainstream technologies are designed often excludes disabled people from using them. This, in turn, necessitates the need for Assistive Technology (AT). AT, more generally, refers to items and techniques that enable a person with a disability to complete a task that they would otherwise be unable to do. ******Personal-scale fabrication, which is an alternative to mass production, uses 3D printers and other equipment, alongside digital electronics design and various other materials for the creation of different types of customizable objects. In the last decade, both personal-scale fabrication and Do-It-Yourself (DIY) approaches have been conceived of as an alternative and a potentially superior way to design ATs and to deploy ATs to users who would benefit from them. These ATs span a range of complexity, from static objects without moving parts (such as cup holders and door openers), all the way to digital interactive devices, such as Speech Generating Devices (SGDs), which can be used by individuals with little or no functional speech.******These Do-It-Yourself Assistive Technologies (DIY-ATs) are indeed promising; they offer the possibility to circumvent some of the biggest problems of ATs: abandonment (even though they are often expensive and/or take a long time to get); failure to meet user needs (despite careful assessment by clinicians); failure to meet needs of their users, and marginalization of their users (in their processes of design/acquisition). ******There are many challenges to be solved before DIY-AT will be used more widely. This research focuses on an important, if not the most important, challenge: DIY-AT, ostensibly intended to benefit individuals with disabilities, still marginalize those individuals, since the making itself is often not accessible. ******This project focuses on accessible making for a challenging class of DIY-ATs: those which are interactive digital devices. These devices use low-cost single-board computers (such as Arduino and Raspberry Pi), they make use of software modules and 3D-printed components, and they require the assembly of electronics******This project will answer questions about the pros and cons of new interfaces, techniques, and systems for designing and making DIY-ATs. To do this, the project will engage with community groups and, together, build learning modules for a set of new DIY-ATs. We are confident this can be done because we have done it twice already. The project will study and learn how people with disabilities are able to use them. A side-benefit is that the DIY-AT designs and learning modules will be generated by the project and they will be made freely available to anyone who wants to use them. The knowledge that is gained will be used in many ways: to improve the design of existing computer interfaces and systems, to improve STEM learning, and to improve the way people with disabilities get to determine the kinds of ATs that they use and customize.