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Your weekly dose of information that keeps you up to date on the latest developments in the field of technology designed to assist people with disabilities and special needs.
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Hi, this is Sachin Pavithran. I’m the Executive Director of the United States Access Board and this is the Assistive Technology Update.
Josh Anderson:
Hello and welcome to your Assistive Technology Update, a weekly dose of information that keeps you up to date on the latest developments in the field of technology designed to assist individuals with disabilities and special needs. I’m your host, Josh Anderson with the INDATA project at Easterseals Crossroads in beautiful Indianapolis, Indiana. Welcome to episode 506 of Assistive Technology Update. It’s scheduled to be released on February 5th, 2021.
Josh Anderson:
Today we are super excited to have the newly appointed executive director of the US Access Board on. Dr. Sachin Pavithran is on to talk all about his new role, the US Access Board and his AT journey. He’s been on this show a few times before, so if you haven’t heard his old interviews, feel free to go back into the archives and check those out. We also have a few stories about some new accessible devices that are in the works, one involving raised bumps on a home pregnancy test so that individuals with visual impairments can independently access those, as well as a new magnetic skin being developed so that individuals with quadriplegia can use facial movements to access the world around them.
Josh Anderson:
Do not forget, if you ever have a question for us here, or if you have somebody that might make a good guest or you’d just like to reach out, you can always send us an email at tech@eastersealscrossroads.org. Call our listener line at (317) 721-7124 or drop us a line on Twitter @INDATAproject. Without our listeners, we don’t have a show so be sure to reach out. We’re looking very forward to hearing from you and hearing your suggestions on who we might be able to have on the show next. Thank you so much for taking time out of your day to listen to us and let’s go ahead and get on with the show.
Josh Anderson:
Are you looking for more podcasts to listen to? Do you have questions about assistive technology? About an accommodation or maybe how something works? Are you really busy and only have a minute to listen to podcasts? Well, guess what? You’re in luck because we have a few other podcasts that you should really check out. The first one is Assistive Technology Frequently Asked Questions, or ATFAQ, hosted by Brian Norton and featuring myself, Belva Smith and a bunch of other guests. What we do is we sit around and take questions about assistive technology, either about accommodations, about different things that are out there, or about different ways to use things. We get those questions from Twitter, online, on the phone and in many other ways.
Josh Anderson:
We’re also trying to build a little bit of a community as sometimes believe it or not, we don’t have all the answers. So we reach out to you to answer some of those questions and help us along. You can check that out anywhere that you get your podcast and wherever you find this podcast. We also have Accessibility Minute. So Accessibility Minute is hosted by Laura Metcalf and if you’ve never heard her voice, it is smooth as silk and you should really listen to that podcast. She’s going to give you just a one minute blurb about some different kinds of assistive technology. Kind of wet your whistle a little bit and just let you know some of the new things that are out there so that you can go out and find out a little bit more about them yourself. So again, check out our other shows, Assistive Technology Frequently Asked Questions and Accessibility Minute, available wherever you get your podcasts.
Josh Anderson:
So not that long ago, my wife and I find out that we were going to be having another child come August. And I found this out because in the middle of a Zoom meeting, she sent me a text message with a picture of the pregnancy test and the two blue lines, which of course did take me back a little bit and made that Zoom meeting a little bit harder. But it got me thinking, for individuals with vision loss, this is not an accessible thing. Sometimes those little lines aren’t real easy to see for folks without sight loss. So it was just another thing that they would have to rely on someone else to do for them. In thinking about that and everything, I actually found a story over at Daily Mail. It’s written by Ian Randall and it’s titled “Pregnancy test that uses raised bumps to convey a positive or negative result is hailed as a game changer for women with sight loss.”
Josh Anderson:
That talks about an accessible pregnancy test that’s been created. Now, granted, this is just a prototype, but it’s been commissioned by the Royal National Institute of Blind People or RNIB. And the prototype’s a little bit larger than a regular pregnancy test, but instead of having those lines, it actually has bumps that pop-up. So the individual with the visual impairment would not have to show this to someone else and then have them tell them this information. It says that the RNIB is actually in talks with Clear Blue, which is a large test supplier, to try to bring this accessible design to market. Of course, the designer did say this may take years to actually be able to do this on a large scale. It talks about a couple of folks that have kind of been able to test this out and everything and they really talk about, it’s a little intrusive and embarrassing to show something to someone that’s that intimate that you just actually kind of test.
Josh Anderson:
And it’s really important to know, are you pregnant? Are you going to be having a baby? And from time to time, that’s not the kind of information you want to share with someone right away, and maybe it’s something you want to think about and kind of keep close to the vest a little bit until you’re ready to tell folks. And really that’s just a choice. A choice for each of us to have on whether we share that information and who we share that information with.
Josh Anderson:
On down in the story, it gets into the RNIB has a design for everyone campaign. And this campaign aims challenge the privacy issues generated by the common presentation of personal data in non-accessible formats. So if you think about this is just one kind of thing that’s not really accessible, it says it also talks about bank and doctor and healthcare information. That’s very personal information as well and having to have someone else read that to you, well you’re sharing things that you may or may not really want to share with folks.
Josh Anderson:
So that is a very fitting story, especially for what we’re going to talk about later with the US Access Board and how they really look at accessibility. And while this does start off just talking about that pregnancy test, which again is some intimate information you may or may not want to share with folks that you might have around you right away, it also gets into just making everything accessible for everyone so that anyone can really use it and be able to live more independent lives without the need for assistance all of the time. We’ll put a link to this over in the show notes, and maybe this is something that we’ll see on the market in the years to come.
Josh Anderson:
Our next story comes to us from News Medical and it’s reviewed by Emily Henderson and it’s called “Assistive magnetic skin system supports freedom of movement for people with quadriplegia.” So the story is about a new system. So if we think of different ways that individuals with quadriplegia may access things, their phone, a tablet, the computer, smart devices, anything like that, we’re relying on some different things. Relying on eye movement, head movement, it could be voice just depending on what we’ve got, and all of those have some limitations. Especially for folks with advanced quadriplegia, they might not be able to move their head or neck enough to really access a switch or be able to do some of those things. Anything involving the eyes usually revolve a lot of calibration and if you look away, move, the system moves, sometimes that calibration can fall. So it may not pick up on blinks or gestures or kind of things that you may need.
Josh Anderson:
And really a lot of the times, we’re combining these systems. So we’re using maybe voice and an eye blink or a switch that’s relying on head movement, or they may be relying on the tongue or other things like that in order to access stuff. But this system’s a little bit different. It says it uses flexible, breathable magnetic skin, as well as a set of smart glasses and a smart wheelchair and smart gadgets that will rely on Bluetooth and infrared communications. It says three magnetic skins are placed between the eyebrows and on each side of the nose and these track facial movements, things like raising the eyebrows up and down, moving the nose to the left and the right. Then those movements are detected by magnetic field sensors that are in the glasses. And then that’s converted into electrical signals, transmitted to the head unit of the wheelchair.
Josh Anderson:
These signals are then processed and can be different smart gadget commands, which could be turning on the lights, clicking the mouse on a computer, other things of that sort. And it says the system can currently support 13 distinct facial gestures. So if you really think about that, that’s 13 different things you can do just by doing these gestures. Again, that might not be enough to control everything, but when combined with other systems, it could be a whole nother tool that you could use to be able to access things.
Josh Anderson:
As we all know in assistive technology, there is no magic bullet. There’s no one thing that works for every single individual. So really the more tools you can have, the more tools in the toolbox, can really open up doors for individuals and I suppose with this, with different devices, it could literally open up the doors just by raising your eyebrows if you could kind of move those things around. It says this device was developed by KAUST researchers, and that’s the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology. So they are still working on it and doing some tests. It does say just a little bit more information here, that they did test the system on three able-bodied users, just to see how well it could work and they had a very high success rate. It says those participants took less than 15 minutes to learn how to use it and the worst case success rate was 93%. So that’s really good. You’re not accidentally triggering it or accidentally maybe turning on the microwave when you’re really trying to go forward in the wheelchair.
Josh Anderson:
So very, very cool technology and something that I really hope that we can kind of see come out. Of course, there’s nothing about price or anything like that. And again, this may not be the one thing that allows you to control everything, but it would give you another tool, another access method, another way for individuals with quadriplegia to be able to access the world around them independently. We’ll put a link to this story over in our show notes so that you can go over and check it out for yourself.
Josh Anderson:
Our guest today has been on this show before to talk about accessibility, the US Access Board and the section 508 refresh. Well, he’s just been appointed as the Executive Director of the US Access Board, and we’re very excited to welcome him back to the show. Sachin, welcome AT Update.
Dr. Sachin Pavithran:
Thank you, Josh. Thanks for having me on.
Josh Anderson:
Yeah. I’m really excited to talk about your new role and everything that that entails, but could you start off by telling our listeners a little bit about yourself and your background?
Dr. Sachin Pavithran:
Sure. So I’m a blind individual person of color that immigrated to the US 25 years ago to start my college degree here. And then I started working for Utah State University as a web accessibility specialist for webbing. Got involved in disability policy and disability rights, got appointed by President Obama to the United States Access Board. And now I’m the Executive Director of the federal agency.
Josh Anderson:
First of all, congratulations on being named the Executive Director. Can you tell our listeners who don’t know, what is the US Access Board?
Dr. Sachin Pavithran:
The US Access Board is a small, independent federal agency that’s responsibility is to write technical standards and guidelines that impact accessibility in various spaces. So if you talk about, you mentioned 508 refresh, so the web accessibility piece, so section 508, which addresses web accessibility in the federal space. Other areas that the US Access Board, that they play a role is in building standards. So building accessibility, passenger vessels, public rights of way, so accessibility on your streets and traffic signals. All the various areas that you see there’s any accessibility influence, the Access Board has a hand in it. We’re not enforcers of all these different standards and guidelines. Our role is to make sure we put best practices, the standards, the guidelines out there so agencies and other entities that are working in this space can make sure they’re doing the best possible approach to accessibility.
Josh Anderson:
Excellent. I guess I should have maybe asked you what don’t you guys cover? Because it sounds like you have accessibility in all those spaces. Sachin, you were originally appointed to the Board in 2012 by President Obama, how has the Board changed over the last eight years?
Dr. Sachin Pavithran:
Well, when I was talking to you about what the Access Board does, our biggest role has been rulemaking. So when I say rulemaking in the federal space, it’s writing regulations that sets the standards. So that’s been the biggest focus. Now with changes that’s happening in the space of accessibility, initially we were talking about web accessibility, building accessibility, all those different areas that we are all familiar with, transportation is an area that’s changing. If you think about an autonomous vehicle, that’s an area that the Access Board is starting to get more involved in. All the other spaces when it comes to ICT, when it comes to information communication technology, the Access Board is getting more and more involved in it. There’s a lot more work to be done because our world around us is changing and accessibility, there’s going to be more work to be done to address accessibility in all these different spaces.
Dr. Sachin Pavithran:
If you think about smart cities, it’s a concept that’s being discussed in lots of cities globally, but also in different parts of the US. What do smart cities mean for people with disabilities? Technology can be a huge savior for people with disabilities to be independent, but it also can be the biggest roadblock if accessibility is not taken into consideration. So that’s where the Access Board is shifting to see what role can we play where these conversations are happening so it’s not just working on federal guidelines or standards that is regulated through different agencies, but also being at the table when these conversations are happening, whether it’s with industry folks, or whether it’s cities and towns, whether it’s with organizations that are brainstorming ideas, what the next big technology piece is going to be.
Josh Anderson:
That’s excellent. I think that’s a very important that you’re going to be able to talk to all these folks as they make these new technologies, because like you said, it can be a huge help or a hindrance, just depending on how those things are built and whether disability is even thought of in that development process. But it’s always so much easier if those things are built in and ingrained in the technology, as opposed to an afterthought that you try to fit in afterwards. Sachin, this is not the only role that you’ve had in assistive technology. I think you mentioned it a little bit, but you’ve also done a lot of work in Utah. Can you tell us about your work in Utah with assistive technology?
Dr. Sachin Pavithran:
Yeah. One of the roles I played before taking on this position, I was the Director of the Assistive Technology Program in Utah, where I worked with clients one-on-one within the community around the state, helping families to make sure that they have access to assistive technology so that the individual has the quality of life. So it ranged from anywhere in the early intervention stage all the way to individuals who are elderly, so that whether it’s for vocational rehabilitation, whether it’s for K through 12, whether it’s for just in a community living, whatever that might be to make sure people have access to the appropriate assistive technology.
Josh Anderson:
And that’s great that you naturally progressed from putting those supports in place to making sure that that accessibility was there for the folks right away without even having to have those AT interventions. You said something at the beginning that I wanted to touch on just a little bit because you said your AT journey and everything started about 25 years ago, going to college and doing all that. So you’ve had a lot of experience in assistive technology. Can you tell us just what some of the things that you were using 25 years ago, just for folks who maybe are new to assistive technology can kind of get an idea of just how much things have changed?
Dr. Sachin Pavithran:
Yeah. So 25 years ago, when I immigrated to the US, I did not know anything about assistive technology. I had no access to technology prior to that. I’ve never used any kind of AT of any sort. So coming to the US and being part of the university, going through school, I started getting exposed to just different things that people who are blind could use. So being blind at that point, I had enough vision to kind of navigate and function without any AT, but that was going downhill pretty fast. But that’s when I first got introduced to a screen reader, which is JAWS, which is what I used on a daily basis. Which is not as efficient as it is these days, but it was the only option back then and the way it worked.
Dr. Sachin Pavithran:
So that was probably my first piece of technology and then it just went on from there. The big difference in the technology I used to use back in the day and versus what I do now, I had a device for different things that I needed. A JAWS screen reader for my computer. If I needed to check what currency I have on my hand, to check the bills, I had a currency reader. If I wanted to check the color of something, I had a color identifier. So my backpack was filled with gadgets, like it is this treasure chest I had to pack around with me everywhere I went. The difference being, and the other pieces, everything was customized and built for the blind users to use. And it was a specific piece of technology. Now forward 25 years, I still have a laptop with a screen reader and I’m still using JAWS so that part’s not changed it’s just improved, but the only other device I have in my pocket is my iPhone.
Dr. Sachin Pavithran:
All those extra things I was using is part of my iPhone now. The difference has been, is all those specialized equipment has kind of become more app-based and I’m able to use a lot of the technology using a mainstream hardware, using apps that’s just downloaded to my phone, whether it’s my iPhone or my iPad. And being more productive and having those accessible to me wherever I am. It was always a hard task to carry all these technologies to different settings. Say, I go to a restaurant. I don’t want to be walking out with my big backpack, “Okay which tool I need to pull out to use today?” Now I have all those tools, most of the tools, in one device.
Josh Anderson:
Yeah. And that’s where I figured you’d probably go, because I know even when I started doing this, which wasn’t quite 25 years ago, there was much specialized things and everything was $3,000 to $5,000 it seemed like, and some of it was big and heavy and can only be used at home or the things that were portable could just do one thing. So like you said, you have a backpack with a whole toolbox full of tricks, but then finding the one, making sure you had the right one. And now that’s all in one consumer product that can really make a difference in folks’ lives.
Josh Anderson:
But I know some folks that are maybe newer to assistive technology, maybe came forth after the invention of the iPhone, just think that’s always been there and that’s definitely not the case. I can remember, I don’t even remember the name of it, something I believe Kurzweil had made it. And it was a portable OCR device. And it looked almost like a, yeah it looked like an old Nokia phone with a camera taped to it, really, if you kind of look back and just had that portable OCR, and I think it was $3,500 and could do that one thing. And like you said, now an app on your phone can do it twice as fast and twice as good.
Dr. Sachin Pavithran:
And the price factor is a pretty big component in the whole conversation because just the example you gave right now, the K-NFB reader, which was clunky and it did a decent job, but the app, it’s a fraction of that cost and it does a much better job and I have it everywhere I go. It’s the same with any other software. And I gave you an example of a currency identifier. Oh, if I wanted a currency identifier back in the day, it cost probably a hundred bucks to buy a currency identifier. Now it’s like, I don’t know how much I paid, the last time was probably $10 for the app, but it identifies probably 40 to 50 different currencies. It’s a significant improvement and also a huge cost saving for the population that a lot of times don’t have that kind of disposable income to buy all this technology.
Josh Anderson:
Yeah. And I’ve had that question from folks before that, “Hey, I need this technology, but the price makes it inaccessible. So how is it really accessible technology?” And that’s always a question that’s almost impossible to answer. So as the AT community, as individuals who work with individuals with disabilities, who work with the assistive technology and things like that, is there anything we can do to help the US Access Board with getting your agenda passed or getting things done to really just help everyone out with accessibility?
Dr. Sachin Pavithran:
I think one of the biggest roles that the AT community can play is bringing more awareness to the role that the US Access Board plays, bringing more awareness to what the different impacts of the Access Board have, but also bringing attention to the Access Board, where things could be different and the things that we need to be paying attention to. Now, it’s easy to get bogged down into all the different regs and different things that we’re involved in because like I said, we’re involved in a lot of different areas. It’s not just technology and it’s not just ICT, 508 refresh. And anything that you can think of that needs accessibility, we have our hands in it.
Dr. Sachin Pavithran:
So at times we might not see, we might not realize that’s the role that the agency could play or have an influence in. So in the AT community, bringing that to our attention is always helpful, whether it’s smart cities or whatever it might be. But also raising the awareness of the agency itself so that it’s not just those who are familiar with the work of the agency keeping on reaching out to take advantage of the information that we have, but also letting others in the community know that this is a good resource for how communities can be more accessible.
Josh Anderson:
And if folks would want to do that, to find out more about the US Access Board or to maybe get information to you, what’s the best way for them to do that?
Dr. Sachin Pavithran:
So like any agency, we do have a pretty in-depth website that we just redesigned, which I think they’ve done a pretty good job in redesigning, so that’s access-board.gov. That’s one way to get more information about the Access Board. And we provide a lot of different webinars. We’re providing more virtual training on the different concepts. We’re obviously reaching out for any kind of technical assistance. We have a TA line and anyone’s more than welcome to reach out to me as well. And the information should be on the website as well.
Josh Anderson:
Excellent. We’ll put all that information over in the show notes so folks can easily get to it. Sachin, thank you so much for coming on today, for talking about the US Access Board, just so that folks can be aware that it’s out there and there to help. And also so they can hopefully, maybe even bring things to your attention that maybe you all weren’t thinking about. And once again, congratulations on becoming the Executive Director.
Dr. Sachin Pavithran:
Thank you Josh. And once again, thanks for having me on and please do reach out if there’s anything I can do.
Josh Anderson:
Do you have a question about assistive technology? Do you have a suggestion for someone we should interview on Assistive Technology Update? If you do, call our listener line at (317) 721-7124. Shoot us a note on Twitter @INDATAproject, or check us out on Facebook. Are you looking for a transcript or show notes? Head on over to our website at www.eastersealstech.com. Assistive Technology Update is a proud member of the accessibility channel. For more shows like this plus so much more, head over to accessibilitychannel.com. The views expressed by our guests are not necessarily that of this host or the INDATA project. This has been your Assistive Technology Update. I’m Josh Anderson with the INDATA project at Easterseals Crossroads in Indianapolis, Indiana. Thank you so much for listening and we’ll see you next time.