CMPE 80A:

Universal Access: Disability, Technology, and Society

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What is the course about?

This course presents an overview of human-centered technology and of its potential for increasing the quality of life and independence of individuals with disabilities. A substantial portion of the course is devoted to studying physical, psychological, and psychosocial aspects of disability. Topics include: diversity and integration, legislation, accessibility, and universal design.

Logistics

When and where?

Merrill Acad 102, Tuesdays and Thursdays 4:00-5:45 PM

Who to contact?

Sri Kurniawan: Instructor
Sonia Arteaga: TA

Assessments (please note the change compared to previous deliveries of this course)

The lectures normally would have 3 components:

  1. A theoretical lecture on a certain topic will be given by the instructor, complemented with videos or demonstration (occasionally guest lectures). Videos will be taken from freely available sites such as youtube or ted), mostly on inspiring "guest lecturers". See an example of a youtube video that will be used in the class to get a feel: Jill Bolte Taylor's stroke story
  2. A chance for you to ask questions and sign the attendance sheet.
  3. In some lectures, you will then be asked to form a team of 2 persons. You are welcome to do the assignment individually, but no extra credit will be given for working individually. A question that needs answering, a statement that needs commenting, a test that you need to run on yourself or other people, etc, will be given to you on the topic related to the lecture and the videos/demonstration/guest lecture. You need to discuss with your partner, and occasionally search for more references on the Internet to support your argument (avoid using too many wikipedia sources). The deliverable is due at 09:55 the day after the assignment by email to the TA's email. Please put "[CMPE80A]: WeekXn assignment" in the subject line. Each essay is worth 4% of your grade. There will be 10 of such assignments. You need to make sure that the TA replies to say that she receives your email, otherwise, you are at risk of losing that 4%. Unfortunately, I will not accept any late delivery for any reason.

Policies and accommodation

Group project

The theme of this group project is "Helping a person with special need one at a time." You are asked to interview a person with special need, who can be a person with disability, a person 65 years old or older, a very young child, a person who does not speak English (and is required to access information or use products in which the information is only in English), a person with low or no literacy, etc. Ask them about a piece of technology (not just computer or cell phone, it can be a DVD player, an electric bicycle, a coin laundry, etc) that they would like to use. Your task is to guide them, throughout the quarter, to learn to use their chosen piece of technology, from the simplest task to the most complex task. You will need to document the process. This will be explained in the first class. You homework partner cannot be a member of your group project team.

Here is the timeline of the project (all deadlines of submitted documents are Thursday 23:55 of that week). Please be aware that late delivery without documented reason (e.g., doctor's note, IT letter saying that the whole UCSC network is down, etc) is subject to 10% grade reduction for the first 24 hours, 30% 24-48 hours, and 100% after 48 hours.

Weeks:

  1. Form a team of 3 students (ask the TA for exception if you would like a larger/smaller group) and email the TA the names and emails (that are accessed daily).
  2. Do all of the necessary logistics for a successful team work (agree on meeting frequency, who does what, conflict resolution procedure, etc).
  3. Setup a facebook page with a common access for your team members and the TA (don't use your individual facebook as all of your friends will be able to read the postings, and they are sensitive information as they pertain to people with special needs). Prepare a proposal on who the partner is going to be (it just needs to be a few sentences, sent to the TA, as to how you plan to recruit this individual, and why this person qualifies as a person with special need. The TA will reply with either a go ahead or a response that the proposed person in inappropriate. Do not recruit the individual until you hear back from the TA. From here on, this person will be called a "partner".
  4. While focusing your effort on recruiting the person, this week is dedicated to literature search. Search for and write a report on the following information using scientific articles/books (limit citing from wikipedia or any other webpages from unclear sources):
    1. The problems with daily living, working, studying, etc, that a person with a similar situation/condition as your intended partner experiences
    2. Privileges, law and regulations to protect and help persons with a similar situation/condition as your intended partner
    3. Commercial technological products (review at least 3) that persons with a similar situation/condition as your intended partner normally use. Review the positive and negative aspects of each of those products. Include screenshots and webpages of the companies providing/selling the products if appropriate.
    Cite the sources of your information by following the directions given in this article on citing scientific work. There is no page limit, but I expect at least 2 pages.
  5. Interview the person on the device they would like to be able to use for which tasks. Please note that the piece of technology that you will be teaching the person has to be a complex enough system that would require multiple operations and a system that can do tasks of varying complexities. So for example, a toaster in which you just need to put the bread slices in and adjust the darkness will not be appropriate. Therefore, when you interview the person, use your judgment as to whether the piece of technology that they asked you to teach them is appropriate - you can still teach them the requested piece of technology, just not as a course project that is worth 40% of your grade. Suggested interview questions/guides are:
    1. What piece of technology (you may explain that this encompasses device/appliance/computer application/webpage) do you always want to use but have not been able to use successfully?
    2. Why is it important for you to be able to use it?
    3. Please list the top 5 tasks you want to do with this piece of technology.
    4. How do you know when you are successful (with the use of this technology)?
    Write a summary of the interview results in a Word document and email the TA. You need to keep a record of the actual interview Q&A - either as audio/video files or handwritten/typed transcripts - this will need to be attached to the final report. Your TA have the right to suggest additional tasks.
  6. Teach them to do the simplest task. You need to record the progression and upload them on your facebook page. You also need to access their success and confidence through an interview (just ask them how confident they are and observe how much help they still need from you - report this on your facebook page).
  7. Continue with more complex tasks. You need to record the progression and upload them on your facebook page. You also need to access their success and confidence through an interview (just ask them how confident they are and observe how much help they still need from you - report this on your facebook page).
  8. Continue with more complex tasks. You need to record the progression and upload them on your facebook page. You also need to access their success and confidence through an interview (just ask them how confident they are and observe how much help they still need from you - report this on your facebook page).
  9. This week you need to do a formal "assessment": ask them to do the most complex tasks, do not help them at all. Afterwards ask them the following questions (adapt as necessary):
    1. How did you think you do with that task/system?
    2. How has knowing how to use the system changed you/your life?
    3. If you have to teach somebody else to use this task/system, what would be the top 3 advices you would give them?
    4. What would be the top 3 suggestions to the designer of this system to make it easier for people like you to use it?
  10. Report, deliverable and all of the supporting documents (paper and electronic) are due. The deliverable of this project is either a 5 minutes movie or a color magazine. The content of the deliverable has to include:
    1. Privileges, law and regulations out there to protect and help persons with a similar situation/condition as your partner
    2. Commercial technological products that persons with a similar situation/condition as your partner normally use
    3. The problems with daily living, working, studying, etc, that your partner experiences (a very brief version of a day in your partner's life)
    4. The technology and tasks that your partner wished to learn at the beginning of the quarter
    5. The learning process
    6. The success (and less successful) stories

Syllabus: Weeks (subject to changes)

  1. Course logistics; Human's body: vision
  2. Human's body: Hearing
  3. Human's body: Neuroskeletal system
  4. Two extremes of lives: older adults and children
  5. Brain, memory and cognition. Guest lecture by Prof. Jennifer Harris from University of Dundee, UK, on Oct 22nd
  6. I am away Tuesday Oct 27th. Learning disabilities
  7. Disability-related law and regulations. Guest lecture by Prof. Ellen Suckiel on Ethics in disability on Nov 5th
  8. History. Worldwide disability initiatives. Rehabilitation, assessment and therapy programs
  9. Movie evening: Freedom Machine. Visit to Bionics Lab on Nov 19th.
  10. Movie evening: Advances in Assistive Technology. No class on Thursday (Thanksgiving). Report and deliverable are due.
  11. Working with people with disabilities. Assistive robot

Readings/resources

TBA