Physical
Overview
In the broadest of terms, being physically disabled does not mean that someone is unable to be mobile, or an active member of society. While you may encounter students that have no independent mobility. For many others they are mobile and able to use different technologies and tools to engage with Netacad. For the purposes of this site - physical disability is split into lower body and upper body requirements. Like many disabilities - there is no one solution fits all. However, many solutions described in this site will support many of the students you may encounter.
Stop!
Before you rush ahead and read on - please stop and think. Before you have read the content and believe that you have all the answers (which you won't). Please do take the time to speak with the student - their supporters and anyone who may have taught them in the past. Often the physically disabled are the experts. Not you the teacher - this site aims to offer you the tools to start the conversation and have additional information at your disposal.
Defining a Physical Disability
This is the broadest of definitions and open to the greatest change as medical and technological advances expand how we help those with physical disabilities engage.
An individual with a physical disability may be:
Someone who has limited lower body movement - hips based or limb based.
An amputee through illness, military service, accident or incident.
Anyone with a prosthetic limb
Someone with a genetic limb deformation
Someone with limited movement in any upper limb - including arm and hand specific issues.
Anyone with spinal issues and restricted upper body mobility
Someone who suffers from extreme fatigue (tiredness) as a result of other conditions
Someone with restrictive vocal capacity
The above are broad and are not exclusive. There may be a mixture for any individual. They may also have other issues with hearing, vision or a cognitive need (or not). They may be in a wheelchair, fully mobile or with limited mobility,
Limited Lower Body Mobility
There is no desire to create an orthopaedic database on this site, in terms of lower body mobility challenges you would typically expect to encounter:
Someone who uses a wheelchair. They may be confined (unable to walk) or semi-mobile (can walk short distances).
Someone who is mobile with the support of crutches/sticks or callipers (braces around lower limbs)
Individuals who are slower physically and have awkward, restrictive walking movement.
Supporting Lower Body Mobility Challenges
When presented with a student who has lower body mobility needs - the two questions you must ask are:
Is the environment comfortable - is there anything regarding position or posture that will cause discomfort.
Do they have access - can they easily reach all technology and all equipment. If you ask them to cable a router/switch pod - can they independently reach all ports/plugs and sockets.
Many nations now have clear legislature regarding physical access in the classroom as well as public spaces and work places. It is essential that you and your academic leadership consider:
Ease of access
Can the student easily reach the NetAcad lab from any other classroom - if it is on an upper floor, is there a lift?
Is the door to the classroom of sufficient width?
Is the route to the equipment or the computers easily navigable. Do you require any ramps?
Can they reach every element of the NetAcad classroom and all equipment in order to complete their studies.
Comfort
Are they able to work at the computer/router for a prolonged period in comfort?
Can they easily transfer from a wheelchair to a desk chair with ease?
Can they easily adjust the desk chair for their needs?
Can the monitor/keyboard/mouse position be easily located for the comfort of the student?
It isn't unreasonable to consider moving equipment around if there is an issue. If it is higher up on a rack moving it lower or closer to a position that is ideal for the student. In an ideal world - good NetAcad lab design can cover a multitude of physical disability needs and become an inclusive learning environment.
Limited Upper Body Mobility
Depending on the physical need - upper body mobility challenges can be more restrictive in terms of using computer technology. Often adaptive technologies come into 'play' when someone is considered to be in this domain. The challenge is enabling the individual to have the same access to keyboard technology and pointing devices. While these are both hand based technologies. You need to stop and reflect on how much work our bodies put into positioning our ten digits and allowing them to do their work on these two essential computing devices.
Often individuals with upper body mobility issues (such as spinal defects) will by default have lower body mobility challenges as well. As we have endeavored to inform you - this cannot be assumed, however it is very likely. When considering teaching NetAcad for individuals with upper body mobility issues, you must incorporate the same needs for lower body mobility.
There are a range of interactive technology types - all designed to replace or replicate the keyboard/mouse experience.
Supporting Upper Body Mobility Challenges
Unlike lower body mobility - the support requirements for upper body disability has considerable complexities. As a result there are many different and diverse adaptations on offer. You have to consider what works best for your student when engaging with NetAcad. In terms of content simplicity, context and categorisation, we have focussed on:
OS (Operating System) adaptations
Keyboard Adaptations
Mouse Adaptations
Vocal Adaptations
Switches (not the network kind)
As NetAcad content, Packet Tracer and the practical experience of configuring routers and switches (network switches, not to be confused with disability switches - as you will read and discover later). All require considerable keyboard and mouse time. These upper body based technological adjustments are essential - otherwise there is little to no opportunity for engagement.
Operating System Adaptions
Different operating systems will offer different default support services - however, there are many features that are common between each OS. While some tablets and smartphones also offer good accessibility features - as Netacad is optimised for a desktop experience*, we are focussing on the common three systems (Windows, Linux and Mac).
Windows - up to date information can be found on the official site
Mac - up to date information can be found on the Apple site
Linux - the weakest, there are many tools - Orca
For Windows (this does depend on version, currently Microsoft supports Windows, 7,8 and 10) - the following commonplace features are available:
Voice Control via Cortana
Voice commands and word prediction
Sticky, filter and toggle keys
Mouse Keys
Eye control (beta on Windows 10)
Mouse control
For any Mac:
Screen Keyboard with Head tracking
Siri (voice control) interaction
Switch Control and Platform Switching (one switch for multiple linked devices) - allowing multiple devices to control your computer.
Sticky Keys and Slow Keys
Mouse and Trackpad Speed Control (keys, speed)
Default Dictation and configuration options
For Orca (Linux)
Offers commonplace keyboard, mouse and voice controls
It is worth exploring all features with each operating system as they continually develop their offer.
Keyboard Adaptions
There are many different models of keyboards available. While the 'qwerty' keyboard format is an established technology. You can easily obtain keyboards that are split for left/right hands. Larger keys, inverted for left only and also have high contrast different colour buttons. The screen keyboard, which has already been referenced, working with touch screen technology and other movement based assistive technologies (mouse, webcam for head movement, eye movement etc.)
Voice control in conjunction with a keyboard, mouse or switches can also be used. Often it is a case of combining the best of different technologies. Depending on the limitations or not of the individuals upper body movement. You can easily adapt any operating system to speed up or more typically slow down the keyboard click rate (just press and hold down space in a word processing application to get a feel for your systems click rate). With limited movement, a slower click rate works best for those who cannot easily (and quickly) release pressure on the keyboard.
Mouse Adaptions
Stating what may seem obvious, the mouse is a pointing device used to select something somewhere on the screen and interact with whatever it may be, Using a combination of gross and fine motor skills as well as manual dexterity it can present a number of challenges
There have always been physical alternatives in the form of:
Joysticks (from gaming to small finger controlled versions)
Track balls (small and large, thumb, finger or palm based)
Track pad (as often seen on laptops)
Touch screens (while common place offer a range of alternate physical affordances)
Gaming mice - as seen in the associated image, a hybrid of the conventional pointing device these often have additional programmable buttons
NetAcad is very 'click centric' - navigating canvas, course and curriculum content. Also with Packet Tracer - moving between devices, device tabs and many options. While the command line environment is keyboard based. Pointing device technology (and the replacement of this) is essential in getting the student to either the content or the command line.
These pointing devices come with scrolling options, left click, right click and other options. The Apple Mac TrackPad is known for its range of gestures. Some gaming joysticks and mice have a range of programmable buttons which can replicate common keyboard shortcuts.
You can easily adjust within all operating systems the scrolling speed (up down or left right window motion) and also the tracking speed. Tracking is the correlation between the physical movement of the pointing device and the associated movement of the on screen cursor. All operating systems offer mouse keys - replacing the mouse with keyboard keystroke combinations. Allowing someone with a numeric keypad or standard keyboard to replicate the movement of a mouse with their fingers - especially if they lack any gross motor function.
Many of you may recall the remotes for the Wii (called WiiMotes or Nunchucks) - these work well in terms of gross motor skills. In terms of adaptation from a NetAcad perspective. There is no immediate apparent use - however, there is no reason why this cannot be explored.
Vocal Adaptions
Voice controlled technology has travelled some considerable distance and is continuing to improve. While environment in terms of background noise and sensitivity remains a challenge. The range of technologies that support voice activation and interaction is becoming commonplace for many home users, let alone those with diverse abilities.
Both Windows and Mac OSX support voice interaction, dictation and offer programmable access for developers. The same applies for many models of smartphone and tablet. While there are tensions in terms of which is better. Both platforms work - both platforms also allow 3rd party applications to offer additional voice services.
All services rely on cloud technologies to enable dictation - requiring a reasonable connection. Every voice command is sent out to be 'interpreted' before the appropriate system command is sent back to the local users system. This method presents resource benefits and drawbacks. Apple also allows 'enhanced dictation' - the full download of these services to a local system (consuming around 400+ megabytes of storage).
The following (with bad grammar) was dictated directly into this site content using a Mac:
The following sentence was used to using a dictation software as you can see that was a accurate however you have to pause have to speak clearly and not suffer from a regional accent which can be painful times as the author often discovers
With practice, you and the individual with diverse abilities can become very adept at using this software. We clearly require more practice. In principle - there is no reason why dictation software cannot be used to configure a router ... we are sure that specific command shortcuts can be created. This is a feature of these operating systems.
Most laptops include an inbuilt microphone - however with ambient noise being a challenge. A headset microphone or clip-on equivalent should be considered. Wireless/Bluetooth versions exist - avoiding inconvenient cables.
Switches
Stop: do not confuse the switches from the world of disability with the switches in the world of networking. One is a button or trigger that can be physically activated. The other keeps our cabled local area networks running.
Your keyboard and mouse can be used as a switch, consider different button combinations. However there are a number of soft and hard switches available. These can be buttons, physical 'click' based toggles - soft pads - head interfaces as well as eye tracking.
Internet of Things has extended the scope of switching devices. You can use a range of environmental inputs and outputs with your smart device or laptop and integrate this with your learning environment.
Depending on dexterity and gross/fine motor ability - switches can be hard and tactile or soft and easier to depress. The above image is an example of a soft switch hub being used as a standard pointing device. This means that anyone with complex upper body disabilities and some limited movement could still access a considerable portion of the Netacad experience.
Understanding Fatigue
Time is everything and many of the courses on offer in NetAcad are intensive. Please be very aware that the pace taken by a physically diverse student, will be considerably different from an able student. There is a likelihood that:
Their condition will also include fatigue, therefore tiredness will often occur . This means that, concentration will come at a premium.
The effort in doing anything seemingly straightforward for the able bodied, will be potentially tiring.
It is quite literally down to the individual need. Each step may take more time. Each learning stage may need to be broken down into more manageable components. This applies to many disabilities, including vision impairment and cognitive challenges.
Summary
For any physically disabled student in a practical computing situation, you must consider both the environment and what adaptations required. Often, modest changes to the way you work and the resources you offer, will make a considerable difference to the individual.