ENGR110/210: Perspectives in Assistive Technology

Abstract: Alexander Graham Bell was the son of a deaf mother, husband of a deaf wife, and in his efforts to invent a device to help with speech and hearing, created a device now so ubiquitous we carry it on our persons. Yet the telephone may be the most visible and frequent point of inaccessibility for modern day adults with hearing loss. We’ll review operational meanings of deafness, successive generations of alternative and assistive technologies, and what the current situation is for deaf adults. And we’ll get wish lists for improving technology-mediated communication from four deaf adults in a variety of occupations.

Biosketch: Nancy Frishberg is a User Experience Strategist, based in the San Francisco Bay area. Her industry experience includes research, marketing, and project management roles with IBM, Apple Computer, Sun Microsystems, and with several consulting organizations. She holds a PhD in linguistics with a specialization in sign languages. Her 1986 book Interpreting: An Introduction, published by the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf (RID), transformed the field of sign language interpreting from a focus on rehabilitation to the perspective of multi-lingual interactions.