IEEE ISWC 2007

A Tutorial on Wearable Computing for Persons with Disabilities

Abstract
The goal of this half-day tutorial is to provide attendees with a survey of issues related to wearable computing for persons with disabilities. Topics to be covered will include a discussion of why accessibility and universal design are important, along with information on current accessibility techniques and relevant legislation. The research activities of the Wireless Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center (RERC), which focuses on wireless and mobile devices for people with disabilities, will be summarized. There will also be a detailed look at previous wearable research in the disability domain. The process of designing a wearable system for persons with disabilities will be discussed along with relevant case studies that illustrate some of the unique challenges in this type of research. A set of guidelines and tips drawn from the experiences of experts in several domains will help the attendees prepare to perform user centered design projects with populations of users with disabilities. Lastly, the tutorial will focus on the future directions that wearable computing for disabilities can take with the goal of motivating attendees to consider these issues while carrying out their research. The intended audience for this tutorial includes researchers and developers in wearable or mobile computing who are interested in learning more about how their work can aid those with disabilities. However, a high level of technical knowledge will not be necessary to benefit from this tutorial.

Bio
Maribeth Gandy is a Senior Research Scientist with the Interactive Media Technology Center (IMTC) at Georgia Tech. She is involved with many biomedical and wearable related research projects. In the past she was a co-author on papers regarding such topics as audio-only wearable computing and a wearable device for universal control. She was also involved in an NIH funded grant to explore the use of computer vision, digital signal processing, expert systems, and computer graphics to automate a brain surgery procedure that alleviates the symptoms of Parkinson's disease. Previously she oversaw a project which is focused on developing a computerized system for assessing a patient's dexterity as well as cognitive abilities with the goal of early detection of disorders such as Alzheimer's disease and depression. Maribeth is a project director and co-investigator in the Wireless RERC (www.wirelessrerc.org), a grant from the National Institute for Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR) in the area of wireless and mobile devices for people with disabilities. Maribeth is a co-investigator on RERC research such as user needs assessment and on development projects for universal control and cognitive prosthetics. Another of her duties with the RERC is as the project director for the University Instruction portion of the Center, which is an initiative to bring accessibility and universal design concepts to researchers, students, and industry. She has developed a clearinghouse of material related to these topics and is a regular guest lecturer on this topic in courses at Georgia Tech and other universities. She has also presented tutorials on this topic at conferences such as ISWC and HCII.