Sacramento Head Start Alumni Association

Raising the Accessibility Bar

Jul 23, 2002

Stanford University's Archimedes Project is working to make information
accessible to everyone. The project is unusual in that it targets just
about
everyone who uses computers and information appliances -- individuals
with
disabilities, the elderly, those who can't read and everyone else. This
summer, a group of Stanford graduate students will collaborate with
industry
executives to innovate products for people with disabilities, but they
want
their technology to outperform other commercial products so
"non-disabled
people will want it," said project leader and co-founder Neil Scott.
"Obsolescence is really a bad thing for the disability industry," said
Scott. The Archimedes Project takes a radical approach to dealing with
obsolescence. Each individual is equipped with an "accessor," a single
device that allows the user to utilize all computers and information
appliances without specialized hardware or software. The Total Access
System, as the accessor is named, uses speech recognition, head-and-eye
tracking and other "human-centered interfaces" that match individual
needs.
http://archimedes.stanford.edu/intro97.html