Special MIT Accessibility Visit for Boston-IA Members

by P.J. Gardner

June, 2003 (updated June, 2015)

The Accessibility and Usability Group at MIT (formerly the Adaptive Technology Information Center(ATIC) Lab) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has evaluated and collected a large number of adaptive devices and software programs for disabled students studying at the Institute and for MIT staff members who need special assistance.

Although the Accessibility and Usability Group at MIT serves the MIT community and is not generally open to the public, the lab generally hosts one open house each year, usually in January.

Read about an MIT Accessibility Open House.

Thanks to the staff at the Accessibility and Usability Group at MIT, a select group of Boston-IA members and friends was invited to the MIT ATIC Lab on June 18, 2003. During our visit, we specifically asked that they show us and talk about the most frequently used accessibility options offered by the lab.

Our hosts (two assistive technology consultants and two student assistants) are among the lab staff who provide help desk services on a daily basis to people in the MIT community who need their support. During our visit, they demonstrated popular options that help people who are blind, or those who have low vision, learning disabilities, or physical limitations that make it difficult to use a computer, or repetitive stress injuries that prevent them from using a computer mouse or traditional keyboard.

During our visit, we saw demos of:

JAWS for Windows (screen reader)
The Kurzweil 3000 (scanning and reading software)
Dragon NaturallySpeaking (voice recognition software)
ZoomText (screen magnifier)
The Tiger Braille Embosser (Braille printer)
An iGesture keypad and TouchStream keyboard from FingerWorks (alternative input devices)
A number of ergonomic keyboards
The accessibility features built into the latest Windows operating systems

We are grateful to the staff of the ATIC Lab for arranging this special opportunity for people from Boston-IA to view the technologies they have gathered.

The Boston-IA Resources library includes a more complete list of assistive technologies to help people with disabilities access information. This list is based on the work of the ATIC Lab, and the devices and software they have available for the people they serve.