Fall 2007 RERC Industry Newsletter

Dear Wireless Industry Colleague:

Welcome to the Fall issue of our quarterly Wireless Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center’s (RERC) Newsletter. 

With October right around the corner, this second issue sees us complete our first year of funding, with many exciting updates to tell you about. 

Ø      If you feel that someone within your organization would benefit from the information contained in this newsletter, please share it with them.

“One Size Doesn’t Fit All”

On July 18, members of AT&T’s User Experience Team and marketing managers, along with program managers from Sapient Corporation, participated in a seminar on universal design at the Shepherd Center.  This seminar is a pilot for the Wireless RERC’s industry-wide effort to stimulate personal commitment and creative action toward implementation of universal design in the wireless industry.  The seminar is conducted by RERC staff with more than 20 years of combined business and research experience in universal design. 

 “One Size Doesn’t Fit All” presents the social, economic, legislative, and personal drivers of universal design as a business strategy, as well as guidelines available for development of effective products and services.  Hands-on exercises reinforce understanding of these guidelines, with the help of people with disabilities participating as subject matter experts.  The seminar concludes with a discussion of strategies for implementing universal design within industry management, products, and services.

Ø      This is the perfect seminar to introduce design, marketing, and managerial staff to thinking about how customers with disabilities can be included in an organization’s business strategy.   The Wireless RERC invites requests from wireless companies to participate in this seminar at the Shepherd Center or at industry locations. 

Hearing Aid Compatibility Survey

In 2006, and in conjunction with the Hearing Loss Association of America, the Wireless RERC began a survey designed to monitor what effects the FCC hearing aid compatibility regulations have on the usability of cell phones for individuals wearing hearing aids and cochlear implants. 

We plan to conduct this survey over the next four years in an effort to track changes in a variety of areas, such as:

• What type of hearing technologies an individual uses.

• What brands of phones are being purchased.

• Overall hearing aid compatibility satisfaction.

• How consumers are finding compatible phones in the marketplace.

• Whether they have switched phones during the last year.

We are in the process of comparing the  2007 responses to those of 2006.  The HAC Survey can be found on our website www.wirelessrerc.org.

Ø      We encourage industry to utilize the data contained in this forthcoming report to see how your customers with hearing loss are using your products.  If there is a particular type of data in which you require, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Advanced Auditory Interfaces

Our Advanced Auditory Interfaces project, directed by Dr. Bruce Walker, is  developing guidelines for the design of advanced auditory and multimodal user interfaces for cell phones.  The guidelines will be tested with end users, and will enable designers and developers to produce effective and desirable interfaces for a broader range of users, especially those with visual impairments.  The use of multimodal displays can overcome many usability hurdles, thereby making more products and services accessible to a broader range of users. 

Present research is centered on creating a Knowledge Base that includes:

• Information on how cell phone usage situations are impacted by visual and auditory interfaces, and how to produce advanced menus using both speech and non-speech audio.
• What industry benefits can be obtained from multimodal interfaces.
• What challenges are faced by industry to implement changes to interfaces.

The Design Guidelines will be distilled from the Knowledge Base and will be disseminated to designers and OEMs.

Ø      Development is proceeding on phones with operating environments supporting Java, Flash/FlashLite, and other high-end audio features. Industry participation in this project would involve supplying test models and airtime, and technical assistance with implementing auditory menus at the operating system level.

State of Technology Conference 2009

Tentatively scheduled for Fall 2009, the theme of the conference will be wireless emergency communications.  This international event will bring together stakeholders for discussions on advances in wireless communications and disability research and to share knowledge about the current and future potential for wireless technologies to assist persons with disabilities before, during and after a crisis.

Our past SOT in 2004 had 74 speakers, more than 200 attendees, and more than a dozen exhibitors which included domestic and international representatives from government, regulatory agencies, state legislators, consulates, advocacy groups, other RERC’s, and wireless manufacturers, designers, and carriers.  Fully one quarter of the attendees had a self-identified disability.

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