NCTI -

National Center for Technology Innovation
Advancing Technology Innovations for All Students

Innovators

burning sparklerTechnological advances come from successful innovators. Read about individuals who have developed creative new assistive and learning technology products for people with disabilities. How might their perspectives benefit your new idea or product?

  • Chris Stephen, Founder, ReadHowYouWant

    Posted on March 26th, 2008

    Australia’s ReadHowYouWant company configures text in a variety of formats to assist different types of readers recognize words more easily by manipulating or building new forms of cueing within the structure of text itself. Learn about the science and human story behind Chris Stephen’s entrepreneurial idea.

     Read More Posted in: Assistive Technology, Innovators, Profiles

  • Cheryl Volkman, Co-Founder & CEO Emeritus, AbleNet

    Posted on January 7th, 2008

    AbleNet is a company to watch given a unique business model that seeks to incorporate content and curriculum; software; assistive technology; and professional training into a single seamless solution for schools. AbleNet’s products are aimed primarily at students with severe/ profound to moderate disabilities, but the company also accounts for broad applicability to various populations.

     Read More Posted in: Innovators, Profiles

  • Ray Schmidt, Vice President, OneWrite Company

    Posted on October 4th, 2007

    Ray Schmidt knows communication devices inside and out – he is the designer of Cyrano, a device built with the HP iPAQ PDA, and is the father of a teenager who has used several communication devices through the years. These experiences give Ray incredible insight into the consumers – service providers and end users - of communication tools. The Cyrano is developed so that users can “build their own machines.”

     Read More Posted in: Assistive Technology, Innovators, Profiles

  • People with Disabilities Do Everything: da Vinci Awardee Promotes the Possible

    Posted on September 25th, 2007

    People with disabilities do everything! That’s the message Roger McCarville, 2007 daVinci Awardee, is talking about on his national show, Disabilities Today. The show is a weekly television program airing the issues faced by the disabled. Check your local PBS channel for air times. The 2007 Da Vinci Awards will be presented at a gala event Friday, September 28.

     Read More Posted in: Innovators, News

  • Andrew Junker, Ph.D., Founder of Brain Actuated Technologies

    Posted on August 22nd, 2007

    [ August 29, 2007; ] Andrew Junker explores the background and possibilities of brain-activated technologies in this Innovator Profile. Brainfingers, an alternate computer access device, allows users to control any computerized technologies without touch, providing new means of feedback to those with even severe disabilities. Post comments and join Andrew online the afternoon of Wednesday, August 29, 2007 to discuss his profile and research.

     Read More Posted in: Assistive Technology, Events, Innovators, Profiles

  • da Vinci Awards

    Posted on August 17th, 2007

    [ September 28, 2007; ] The National Multiple Sclerosis Society have recognized individuals and organizations for their outstanding design innovations aimed at helping the disabled overcome barriers and further empower all people. The 2007 winners will be honored Friday, September 28th at the da Vinci Awards gala at the Ritz Carlton in Dearborn, Michigan. Past winners include a Who’s Who of accessible design.

     Read More Posted in: Events, Innovators, News

  • Fraser Shein, President and CEO, Quillsoft Ltd.

    Posted on May 29th, 2007

    Join Fraser Shein, the developer behind the successful WordQ and SpeakQ products, to discuss his ideas on design, marketing, and literacy supports. He will be online blogging in response to comments and questions related to his profile between May 30 and June 6. You must be registered to comment on this and any other NCTI postings.

    Read more about Fraser’s background and business development model in the latest NCTI Innovator Profile.

     Read More Posted in: Design, Innovators, Profiles

  • Jim Schroeder, Ph.D., CHFP - President, Applied Human Factors (AHF) Inc.

    Posted on March 16th, 2007

    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.

     Read More Posted in: Innovators, News, Profiles

  • Larry Goldberg, Director of the Media Access Group at WGBH

    Posted on January 22nd, 2007

    Larry Goldberg was keenly interested in technological “toys” since childhood. A self-described “geek from the AV (audio-visual) squad,” he began working with media in high school and studied cinema and broadcast journalism in college while working at TV and radio stations. This, coupled with a fierce commitment to “public service and the democratic applications of technology,” put him on a natural collision course with one of the most enlightened media organizations – WGBH in Boston.

     Read More Posted in: Innovators, Profiles

  • Steve Noble and Neil Soiffer: Two Technological Visionaries

    Posted on December 20th, 2006

    Design Science may represent the future of technology inclusion companies: it is a mainstream producer of accessible mathematics authoring and workflow software for the publishing industry and science, technical, and medical fields with a universal design philosophy expressed in a belief that accessibility naturally arises as an integral component of good design using open-source standards.

     Read More Posted in: Collaboration, Innovators, Marketing, Profiles

  • Staying on the Cutting Edge by Involving University-Based Consultants

    Posted on May 5th, 2005

    Laureate Learning Systems designs, produces, and supports computer-based language intervention tools. Laureate programs are used to enable children and adults with special needs to build skills including categorization, vocabulary, expressive language, syntax, reading remediation, auditory discrimination, functional language, and concept development. The range is wide, and Laureate helps consumers find what’s right for them by organizing products according to seven stages of language development from birth to adulthood.

     Read More Posted in: Case Studies, Collaboration, Innovators, Research

  • Ron Hu, President / Designer, Afforda Speech

    Posted on May 5th, 2005

    Ron is a self-described “techno-freak” and has worked with computers and electronics since he was a kid. Until recently, he owned an assistive technology vending company registered with the Canadian government. Through that work, he had a lot of contact with manufacturers of scanners, speech synthesizers, and other technologies that helped spark his desire to get back into design himself. “I was already familiar with the market, so to speak, and when I sold that business, I really wanted to get back into electronics more… this was a very good avenue for me to be able to design and play with new ideas.”

     Read More Posted in: Assistive Technology, Design, Innovators, Profiles

  • Liberated Learning: A University/Corporate Partnership with Global Reach

    Posted on April 6th, 2005

    Liberated Learning is an automated captioning system that enables teachers’ lectures to appear on a screen as they speak. Students can read as the professor talks and, at the end of the session, the system provides a text transcript and multimedia notes available on line after speech recognition errors have been edited out of the system. This alternative to conventional note-taking for students with disabilities also provides help to non-disabled students—they, too, can use the final notes and can benefit from having a visual lecture as well as an auditory one. The tool assists a range of learners, including typically-abled, quadriplegics, second language learners, students with learning disabilities and people who are deaf or hard of hearing.

     Read More Posted in: Case Studies, Collaboration, Innovators, Universal Design [UD]

  • Steve Jacobs and The IDEAL Group: Think Globally—And Be Patient!

    Posted on March 5th, 2005

    According to Jacobs’ analysis, incorporating accessible IT into a range of products can enable those goods to be highly competitive in global markets. This is particularly the case within large developing nations, where these items could improve economies by increasing the flow of capital. In addition, Jacobs holds that the manufacture and marketing of accessible IT by American companies could help to reverse the United States’ trade deficit and enable it to dominate the global IT market, not by selling products that are cheaper, but products that are more accessible, usable, and useful.

     Read More Posted in: Assistive Technology, Case Studies, Collaboration, Innovators, Marketing

  • Tales of Two Collaborations

    Posted on February 2nd, 2005

    At the November 2004 NCTI conference, researcher Gaylen Kapperman met representatives from two separate New York-based businesses: Touch Graphics and Bridge Multimedia. He continued conversations with both. In one case, the talk led to an active partnership; in another, despite a productive exchange of ideas, no immediate commitment followed. Both processes, however, were useful and necessary exercises in collaboration.

     Read More Posted in: Assistive Technology, Case Studies, Collaboration, Innovators

Articles and Papers

  • Assistive Technology Group Recognized for its Efforts

    CanAssist, an 8-year old non-profit assistive technology group partially funded by the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada, was recently recognized with a grant of $704k for the over 150 projects it has completed, by request, for members of the differently abled community.

  • Da Vinci Award Winners

    The National Multiple Sclerosis Society have recognized individuals and organizations for their outstanding design innovations aimed at helping the disabled overcome barriers and further empower all people. The winners will be honored Friday, September 28th at the 2007 da Vinci Awards gala at the Ritz Carlton in Dearborn, Michigan.

  • Microsoft 2007 Imagine Cup

    The Microsoft 2007 Imagine Cup is an international competition with $25,000 as the grand prize with $170,000 given overall. Now in its fourth year, competition organizers are seeing student contestants take on the challenge of creating designs for users with disabilities. Final awards will be announced in August.

  • Software Allows Children to Create Their Own Technology

    Marina Bers, an assistant professor at Tufts University and the author of the new book, “Blocks to Robots,” has created a software program that aids in learning by letting children create their own virtual communities.

Websites

The following links are to outside resources and are not contained on this site.

  • INDEX: the Global Non-Profit Network Organization

    INDEX: is a non-profit network organization - based in Copenhagen - that focuses on Design to Improve Life worldwide. The organization works through a global network to ensure access to the best knowledge on design and the cutting edge of contemporary thinking.

    Through a wide range of activities and events, INDEX: is the catalyst for Design to Improve Life: an organization that spurs public and professional awareness of the great – and too often unnoticed – human and commercial potential of Design to Improve Life.

Innovator Profiles

Take a closer look at the work and worlds of assistive technology designers, manufacturers, and distributors through NCTI interviews.

Case Studies

Case Studies look at how partnerships develop and contribute to the research process in the field of assistive and learning technology.

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