2005 NCTI Conference General Sessions
For more information about our general sessions, please view the summary of each panel discussion. To see bios of our speakers, go to the agenda on the main conference page.
Welcome
Tracy Gray, Director, National Center for Technology Innovation
The theme of this year’s meeting is Creating Solutions through Collaboration. The assistance and learning technologies industry is at a tipping point, a time of great change and converging opportunities. We plan to explore many of these opportunities with you during the course of the conference. Attendance is once again up this year, from 85 attendees in 2003, to 125 participants last year, to 165 guests and presenters now in 2005.
Read the full notes.
 Opening Remarks
Lou Danielson, Director, Research to Practice Division, Office of Special Education Programs, U.S. Department of Education
OSEP continues to find ways for its programs to make demonstrable impacts with relatively modest amounts of money. Conference participants should consider how that can be achieved. OSEP is assessing how best to connect to the Institute for Education Sciences, the new home of OSEP’s research program and study evaluation program. Initiatives like Stepping Stones will be on an accelerated schedule next year and new regulations will be out shortly for IDEA.
Read the full notes.
 Paths to Innovation
Promoting awareness of the benefits of assistive technology (AT) for students is a common practice among professional and stakeholders in the field of AT. But how do we promote awareness of the benefits of joining the field to new professionals and nurture the next generation of innovators and researchers?
Read the full notes.
Read the full transcript.
Larry Goldberg (Moderator), Director, National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM), WGBH
The dividing lines among researcher, distributor, or vendor blur although all have different roles. How do we collaborate across the lines? How can we advance the field?
David Williamson Shaffer, Professor, Wisconsin Center for Education Research, University of Wisconsin
Epistemic games like Zoo Tycoon can support innovative thinking and other educational results. These games are based on understanding how people deal with uncertainty, make decisions, and engage in a kind of thinking that reshapes action while we are acting. In these ways, epistemic games are similar to practicums, where trainees perform in their professional fields, get feedback on performance, and adjust their behaviors and strategies. We can use technologies to simulate those educational, skill-building, judgment-building experiences.
Corinna Lathan, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, AnthroTronix
Lathan founded AnthroTronix in 1999 as a research and development company, starting work with a rehabilitation hospital for children. Her background was in aerospace engineering and neuroscience, which led her to tech transfer and biomedical engineering—and finally, with Anthro Tronix, an AT business application.
Michael Behrmann, Professor and Director, Helen A. Kellar Institute for Human disAbilities, George Mason University
Ideas move through the four stages of the “edge of innovation.” They may start as Over the Edge, evolve to the Cutting Edge, then become useful Bleeding Edge applications—only, finally, to end up as Dull Edge systems. Some ideas have a hard time moving from one stage to another. Some ideas have multiple applications; others have unintended design consequences.
Discussion Topics
- Venture capital is attracted to evolutionary, not revolutionary, ideas. Government and angel investment, while slower, can be desirable because you retain IP ownership.
- Some government funding supports ideas and products that are no longer cutting edge but on the way to dull—because what they fund must move immediately to wide application.
- A small difference in design enables you to make a huge difference in your market, so that you can easily reach the secondary audience and make substantial profit.
 Innovation in Practice: The Stories of Entrepreneurs and Researchers Developing New Products
The NCTI case studies and profiles come alive through an interactive discussion with innovators and collaborators previously featured in these two popular web series.
Read the full notes.
Read the full transcript.
Eric Morrison (Moderator), Faculty, Pima Community College and author of NCTI Innovator Profiles
A story: Laura is blind and wants to dance. She came to Pima Community College and there became a dancer and choreographer thanks to AT. The people on this panel work through challenges in the market and users to get innovations to market.
Sara Basson, Director, Accessibility Services Program Manager of IBM Research and Executive Advisor, Liberated Learning Consortium
IBM has a long history of creating AT. The current partnership with St. Mary’s University to create an automated captioning system is sustained by mission-driven participants and has long-term and short-term benefits for all participants.
Steven Landau, Research Director, Touch Graphics
For a small company trying to penetrate markets, collaboration is a live or die proposition. TouchGraphics identifies and contacts experts. Universities are becoming more receptive to the idea of partnering with business, especially through SBIR grants.
When Touch Graphics collaborates with for-profit companies, the issue of who owns the IP arises. With Universal Design, one product reaches all users—and in this way, the tiny market of blind users shares cost with other markets which are larger.
Tom Large, President and Chief Executive Officer, Designer Appliances, Inc.
Good technology means you don’t know it’s there. For every good idea you see there’s a thousand you don’t see as well. Entrepreneur—a word we use too much—should be defined as: people who do things you think are exceptional, people who take something that isn’t very much and make it into something more.
Annuska Perkins, Accessible Technology Group Product Planner and User Interface Designer, Microsoft
Testing products for usability provides insight into other people’s perspectives and experiences. All should supplement their strengths with those of others to reach common goals—and give people a voice in decisions before the rubber meets the road.
Discussion Topics
- The ultimate destination for cost-effective AT is the general market. Business will partner with researchers if products move out of the niche market.
- IP can be a barrier to collaboration.
- Some needs for change are consumer-based and some are vendor-based.
- For-profits need to think broadly about disability. More researchers and private vendors need to think about the needs of wounded veterans.
 The AT Field at a Tipping Point: Findings from NCTI’s Dialogue Forums
The NCTI Dialogue Forums revealed the convergence of opportunities available to promote the potential of AT as a powerful part of an achievement solution for all students. Panelists who participated in the Dialogues discuss the key findings and recommendations from the NCTI report, Moving Toward Solutions: Assistive and Learning Technology for All Students.
Read the full notes.
Read the full transcript.
Dave Edyburn (Moderator), Associate Professor, Department of Exceptional Education, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
The report’s key findings are places where we can make a difference at this “tipping point:”
- Building Leadership Capacity for Implementation;
- Identifying and Leveraging Existing Networks and Resources;
- Addressing the Pace of Innovation Versus Implementation;
- Balancing Universal Design and Assistive Technology; and
- Developing a Research Agenda to Inform Policy and Practice.
The entire report will be released at ATIA in January, and will be on the NCTI.
Lynne Anderson-Inman, Director, Center for Advanced Technology in Education (CATE) and Center for Electronic Studying, College of Education, University of Oregon
The report asks, “What will it take for AT to be considered a critical component of education to help students reach their potential?” Perhaps the companion question is “How will we know when AT is helping more students to learn and achieve their potential?” Indicators are likely to be that small changes suddenly start to have a major impact, sometimes unforeseen; when the technologies traditionally identified as AT are embedded in the tools that all people use every day, such as cell phones.
Diana Carl, Director, Special Education Services, Region 4 Education Service Center
AT can be the tipping point for students to access the curriculum. IDEA and NCLB are both barriers and change agents: under these pieces of legislation, practitioners must “consider” AT, but what does that loose term really describe? States need to develop technology standards and certification.
Bob Regan, Director, Project Management, Macromedia
Are we at a tipping point or on the edge of the cliff? The future is unsure, although transformations are on the way. Growth of technology and mastery of technology is outpacing our thinking about it. Don’t think of AT as a product but as a service, an effort to build and enhance incremental products. The field needs to think in a more collaborative way.
Discussion Topics
- The pace of change in the marketplace is different from that in research.
- With the changes in user interfaces and improved basic levels of AT, small companies may license their inventions and move on to new innovations.
- To enable small companies to make their essential contributions, the system needs to accommodate collaboration.
- Researchers should never be researching “a product,” but features within a product.
- Rocks holding back the AT solution are teacher training programs and teaching to standardized tests.
 Technology, Disability, and Education Policy: U.S. Senate Perspectives
Panelists explore funding, research, and practice implications of recent legislation such as IDEA 2004, No Child Left Behind, two percent waiver ruling, the Assistive Technology Act amendments, and the National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard (NIMAS).
Read the full notes.
Read the full transcript.
Daniel Blair (Moderator), Senior Director for Public Policy, Council for Exceptional Children (CEC)
Jessica Brodey, attorney and public policy advocate, working on disability and technology, a member of the ATIA Policy Council
Download Jessica Brodey's PowerPoint Presentation
Describes issues for advocates, including:
- Integration of technology in the classroom;
- The impact of NIMAS on publishers and purchasers of textbooks;
- New IDEA regulations regarding assessments and Part D grants;
- Awareness and training; and
- The opening of the new area of concern around emergency planning and preparedness for persons with disabilities.
Chuck Hitchcock, Chief Officer of Policy and Technology, Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST)
Presents a review of NIMAS process and legal provisions. In order for NIMAS standards to have a strong and early impact for students, collaboration is essential.
Download Chuck Hitchcock's PowerPoint Presentation
Discussion Topics
- Implementation, information, training, awareness, and working with state standards.
- NIMAS and technical assistance for the implementation of NIMAS, especially educating vendors about formats.
- How do we reach the rest of the students? What will happen when they transition out? Should we be favoring incremental change in product development rather than building new products from the ground up?
- International issues include trade and issues around globalization.
- Medicare and Medicaid: what funds supports product purchase?
- Universal design should create bridges between AT and all technology.
- Advocacy tools for the Hill and the White House: demonstrating product and stories, being an expert resource.
- NIMAS, the legislation and market forces.
- The de-emphasis of technology at federal and state level.
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