The Company And The Technology

Jim Schroeder chuckles a bit at the incongruity that his one-time work for the Army Research Institute preparing weapons simulation systems led directly to his AT products. It all began with a long-distance light pen he developed and patented in that early work. AHF now produces products targeted for persons with computer access and augmentative communication needs. Anecdotal reports suggest that persons with learning disabilities are using the programs to meet their unique needs, too. Various switches, pointing, and stylus devices can be used for input.

AHF’s major platform product is called REACH Interface Author, a very adaptable on-screen keyboard with over 400 configurations and speech output. Powerful additions are also available. SmartKeys involve a method for both word and letter prediction involving a serial process in which keys on the virtual keyboard are eliminated or their appearance changed as input is provided by the user, increasing the ease of finding the next needed letter. Soon, the entire word can be selected from activated dictionaries, leading to an overall increase in accuracy for point-and-click input. SmartLists is another add-on for predictive scanning input. AHF also offers a unique phonetically-based on-screen keyboard, a mouse emulator, and SoothSayer Word Prediction.

Unique Aspects Of The Organization

Jim chose the name of his company specifically to reflect his background and fundamental design philosophy – that of human factor design principles targeted at measurably improving human performance. As both a licensed psychologist and a certified human factors professional doing pioneering computer access work since 1987, Jim guides his company to a particularly strong emphasis on controlled experimental research to evaluate the impact of AHF’s products. This is not only a technical emphasis, but a passion: “We love to do research here. I can’t speak for other developers, but if we had funds available, we would do research on our own. However, it is usually the practicality of the costs of research and the requirements of government funding that drives the direction of our research.”

Creating Technology That Works

Jim says, “I think the overwhelming principle that any human factors person would tell you is that the user – and usability – are the two most important things. You really need the user involved. In the very early development of REACH, we had subjects with physical disabilities come in, even helping us decide on the wording for the menus. You need to do anything possible to make the technology more intuitive – easier for someone to work with.” He adds, “Identifying preferred features is not enough, the other critical component is having staff with the technical expertise necessary to create the products that exploit those features. AHF has been blessed with employees like Kevin Templer, our Director of Software Development, who make such products actually come about.”

AHF’s research results indicate they are producing products that do work: a significant 11% gain in typing speed was obtained by subjects with point and click input while for switch-scanning the increase was shown to be an impressive 41%. AHF’s academically oriented publications can be requested from info@ahf.com.

On Collaboration

Jim tends to downplay the likelihood of successful vendor-to-vendor collaborations due to potential product control and intellectual property matters, advising, “I think the best opportunity for collaboration is between the vendor and some agency or organization.” As evidence, he states, “Dr. Nicolas Walsh at the University of Texas at the Health Science Center has made most of our research possible by providing strong support such as facilities, support staff, collegial input, etc. UTHSC provides access to their Institutional Review Board (IRB). Most granting agencies require that an IRB review and approve research involving human subjects to make sure that all potential risks are removed or minimized.” Jim goes on to say that the Review Board ultimately posts project announcements in the department’s rehabilitation and medical setting which generates the major supply of his research subjects as families or employees get interested and refer children.

Policy, Legislation, And Standards

AHF would welcome far more demand from school districts for their experimental data on outcomes. Despite federal requirements for proof that technology works before it can be bought for school populations, Jim suspects, “People must be getting around that,” because, “I don’t really hear much real demand. I think we would know about it because we are strong in that area.” He indicates that the match between technology and human need may be sufficiently clear that his buyers are not requiring additional information to demonstrate the need.

Knowing Users And User Requirements

Ever the vigilant statistician, Jim indicates, “You can get some insights about what’s easy and what’s not in system interaction from people without disabilities. We often include people with and without disabilities in our samples to increase the ‘N’ (statistical sample size) because, fortunately, there aren’t that many people with serious physical disabilities… many are not able to participate in formal research. People without disabilities won’t have the same level of performance, but there will be a correspondence and correlation between the groups that can allow you to increase the power of your study.”

Changing Perspectives

One of the most important issues Jim indicated was the need to find a way out of the paradox he finds in regard to scholastic research. Increasingly there are expectations that vendors demonstrate that their products lead to real academic progress, but this is substantially difficult to prove in context if developers do not have access to academic environments. One of Jim’s major goals is to move beyond laboratory-type experiments into field research on kids in real school contexts with educational tasks before them. He says, “You have to go to the target population, at least theoretically it’s best.” He laments, though, some of the difficulties with such collaboration: “It’s a wonderful goal, but often harder to obtain than you’d like it to be.”

At present, he is attempting to establish a working relationship with a local school district, but it is proving challenging and uncertain. He finds, and understands, that schools are under substantial pressure to provide results, and the culture of schools is not tailored to assisting in technological research projects. He says, “I’m not sure there are real strong incentives for schools to join this kind of activity – even the prospect of free software is not enough given the circumstances.”

On Markets

For AHF, school districts buying AT for special populations constitute the predominant customer base. However, like many AT developers, Jim is focused on markets beyond persons with special needs as part of a sustainable business model.

He cites an example of a non-disabled professional from Japan working as an interpreter translating technical manuals from Japanese to English using AHF’s Soothsayer Word Prediction: “He can create a custom dictionary, for instance when he’s working on a refrigeration manual. He can build specialized terms for the specific project. As an interpreter, he knows the words. Soothsayer just allows him to type more accurately and faster – especially with some of the more unusual vocabulary he’s working with.” He continues, “We think there are probably a lot of situations in which touch screens and stylus inputs will help people, especially the phonetic tools we are working on which were originally targeted for people with spelling difficulties. English as a Second Language populations are a good example of others who could benefit. Or, just literacy in general – if someone knows words and how they sound, but has never learned to write English, theoretically they can actually write using our Sound-It-Out Phonetic Keyboard. We’re excited about that!”

Etceteras

As most of his products are aimed at alternative computer access, Jim feels AHF’s products potentially need to work with virtually all existing software, an ambitious perspective. Outlining the prioritized process AHF uses in testing for this essentially impossible task, he says, “You take the more popular programs in the Windows world – Word, Outlook, Internet Explorer – you have to work with them. You test and determine the other programs most people are using”. He indicates that not all system designers are so interested in compatibility, leading to potential competition for resources: “Sometimes there are specific problems – for example, game programs are designed such that they kind of take charge over the computers graphics, so it’s hard, for example, for our mouse emulator to do some of the functions.” AHF’s proactive approach to testing and compatibility helps to ensure it can seek possible solutions and inform users.