Description of Technology

Traxsys, a division of Esterline Corp., develops a range of alternative computer input devices including desktop and fascia or panel mounted trackballs, joysticks, and connectivity accessories.

Got Involved in Access Technology Issues Through

Esterline produces alternative input devices for complicated medical and industrial control applications in which a mouse cannot be used, a natural place to develop alternative inputs for persons with disabilities. The ‘calling’ to start “making life easier for kids” started as literally that. As John explains, “We started in the field of AT about 13 years ago when I had a telephone call from a college in the U.K. for teenagers and young adults with physical disabilities – there was nothing on the market at that time.”

Intrigued By

John finds the openness in AT design, in contrast to what he experiences in general engineering, intriguing. He explains, “The one thing I think about assistive technology which you possibly wouldn’t get in a more commercial, more industrial environment is there are lots of people willing to give you free information. The nature of assistive technology in this area is people are only too pleased to disseminate their knowledge on this information. This is critical, for as John admits, “We are engineers, we are not clinicians, we aren’t experts in the field of assistive technology, inasmuch we don’t know the physical requirements to do the engineering.”

Finding out About Needs

John visited the college that called, saw the need, and began designing an initial prototype that he felt would meet the needs he had observed. He established the process he now employs in which prototypes are evaluated by that and other colleges to ensure his “trackables,” as he calls them, and other inputs are succeeding. Typically, about three prototype iterations are designed. User requirements and product assessment are now also accomplished in association with distributors, therapists, teachers, and clinicians. Feedback obtained in trade shows is also an important source that informs design conception.

Seeing the World in New Ways

For John, seeing the world in new ways came about in working with students who were bright and computer literate “but couldn’t navigate the screen.” Initial design grew out of “some of our industrial bits and pieces, out of our existing trackables and joysticks, a few switches, and playing around with an interface.” John noticed that his informants could control a wheelchair, and developed the insight – one that would prove successful – that joystick inputs could resolve many input and navigation challenges for the computer. His first prototype flowed directly out of this realization.

On Design Principles

The fundamental principle that drives Traxsys is the natural and logical modification of existing product lines and design experience for persons with disabilities based on observation of difficulties. John thinks deeply about persons with tremors and other needs, and responds with designs that build in controllability, especially adjustable speeds to avoid mishaps such as “cursors flying off the screen.”

On Users

Of his perception of users, John says: “I’d like to think that we don’t think upon them any differently from any other user who has got a need or requirement… or wants a solution. It’s an amazingly interesting field to be in.”

On Training and Use

John emphasizes that his products are delivered to customers by third-party distributors; thus, the fundamental orientation for training and use, in John’s mind, forms a further design principle. As he expresses it: “We make it as simple to use as possible, because as you can imagine some of these will go into homes and you can’t expect necessarily great technical expertise from the carriers or helpers. So what you try to do is make a product that you can plug it into a PC and it works straight away.”

Views on the market

Traxsys is highly sensitive to the vagaries and realities of the market, and therefore the need to produce products that will serve a range of technology handlers. Operational flexibility, then, constitutes another design principle that is built into final forms Traxsys releases.

Success indicators – making a difference

John is highly interested in comfortable inclusion as a primary aspect of success. To that end, a major aspect of success for him is the reduction of stigma that may be inflected in the design of products. Of his input devices, he says, “What we are trying to do and what we hope to do with future products is make them look less like a piece of assistive technology. In the early days most products looked like what they were. I think it’s radically important (in design) to make it so it isn’t so obviously a piece of AT.”

On challenges, information exchange, and research

As with many designers, John sites the potential to receive a range of advice and suggestions from technology handlers with a wide range of idiosyncratic needs. He says, “We could make lots of ‘warm-ups’ that would meet an individual’s requirement, but commercially it would not be a good idea and the cost to the end user would be prohibitive.” Thus, there is the continual challenge of determining concepts from a myriad of inputs that will be flexible enough to serve as many persons as possible while maintaining the centrality of success in the market.

Wants to know more about

John emphasizes the desire of any developer: “You are always looking for something else to develop, something else you think you can sell… it’s possibly meeting (user) requirements that we are not yet aware of, or have overlooked. We are always looking for new ideas.”

On new horizons

John views an aging population as he thinks about new horizons. Though he sees that a strong emphasis has been placed on alternative technological solutions for many traditional aspects of disability, he feels more emphasis is needed on the changes in ability that come from the aging process: “Really trying to make that easier, just the normal effects of aging… giving access to senior citizens. The computer literate get old!”

Provocative views & quotes

Reflecting provocatively on the trajectory of product development, John says: “I think you’ll notice over the last two or three years there are probably fewer new products. Probably a bit less innovation. I think this is simply because there’s an awful lot of equipment out there now, and a lot of effort has gone into it. As far as new, new products, lets say certainly as far as computer input devices are concerned, most avenues have been explored, I think, quite successfully.”