ICT and People with Cognitive Disabilities: Variations in Assistive Technology
When Jane (not her real name) was in her fifties, the supply of oxygen to the area of her brain responsible for language processing was interrupted. The stroke left Jane with aphasia, impairment in using language. Jane can understand spoken language well, but speaking and reading are very difficult. Like so many people, Jane uses the Web to access information, but the process is slow and painful. As Jane expresses it, when confronted with a cluttered page of information, “I have to read everything.” That is, Jane has lost the ability to skim text visually. Watching her work her way, word by word, through irrelevant text, looking for the information she needs, makes one sharply aware of how heavily computer use relies on rapid skimming, an ability most of us use without ever being aware of it.
In a consultation on ways that improved technology could help people with aphasia use computers more effectively, Jane had her first experience with text-to-speech software. The technology allowed her to select text on the screen and have it read aloud. While the software didn’t restore her ability to skim, it greatly enhanced [...]