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Twentysomething and Beyond: How to Create Engaging Activities for Adults with Multiple Disabilities

Kristine Lucas
The Center for Accessible Technology
2547 8th. St. 12-A
Berkeley, California 94710
e-mail: CforAT@aol.com

Web Posted on: December 12, 1997


"Hit the switch. Hit the switch if you want to make something happen. Hit the switch. Okay,but if you don't hit the switch, the computer won't make that flatulent sound and flash an unintelligible blue object across the screen! Please,hit the switch, already." If you have ever found yourself in a situation where the number of verbal cues you have given an adult to evoke their participation in a switch training activity, has far outnumbered the actual number of times that they activated a switch, you are not alone.

Frequently, in an effort to promote the development of computer, communication and switch skills, adults with disabilities are presented with activities in which they have no interest and find little meaning. Often they are encouraged to use programs designed for children. In other instances, low budgets dictate that antiquated programs be utilized. These applications may seem to meet the needs of adult consumers but often fail to elicit their interest because they are designed to appeal to a younger audience or do not deliver quality sounds and graphical feedback. Consequently the lack of motivation to interact with juvenile or obsolete software applications is often misconstrued as an inability on the part of the adult with the disability to benefit from technology. Often a negative experience with inappropriate software, turns an adult off to a technological venue that may revolutionize his or her way of life.

One possible solution is to use authoring software. Authoring programs allow you import text, sounds, artwork, photographs as well as QuickTime movies from a variety of sources. Rather than wasting energy pleading with adults to hit a switch or spending money stocking up on activities designed for children, you can add your own content and produce activities with an adult flair. This type of software gives you the flexibility to personalize an activity to match a particular individual's interests as well as create activities with more general content that may appeal to the senses of humor or experiences of many. The combination of artwork and sounds is infinite so with one or two authoring programs, used in conjunction with a paint program, a vast library of activities can be produced. Upon hearing the words "authoring programs," the first tendency is to panic that a large sum of money must be spent on acquiring high-end programs to achieve this objective. In addition to being costly and beyond the budgets of most ATA, school,vocational and rehabilitation sites, there is an extensive learning curve associated with these applications. It could take weeks to learn how to make one cause and effect activity, which could still potentially bore the participant in less than five minutes. Before you go out and write a grant or approach your funding coordinator, ask yourself these questions: What am I attempting to accomplish? What skills am I trying to help a person develop? How can I manipulate the software that I already own, even if it was designed with children in mind, to create activities that will interest adults and thus possibly facilitate the development of some crucial skills?

The first step in creating activities that will engage adults is to identify what you want to accomplish and why exactly you want to engage these individuals. Are they planning to use a word processor or on-line services? Is the long term plan to use technology to communicate with others? In many cases, the initial objective is to determine whether or not an adult, who has never communicated verbally, understands that their actions with the switch produce visual and auditory feedback from the computer, i.e. demonstrates a sense of cause and effect.

Cause and effect activities can be easily created with IntelliPics from IntelliTools,Inc. Picture items are created by copying and pasting art work into a window. Then sounds can be recorded or imported from other sources to accompany the artwork when a switch is activated. Items can be energized on screen by selecting a movement from the IntelliPics list or through use of the frame animation feature.

For an activity called "Deli Relics," that evokes the mood of the sixties era, try creating original artwork with Kid Pix Studio by Broderbund and then importing it into IntelliPics. Kid Pix Studio lends itself perfectly for the psychedelic designs characteristic of this era. By using the Wacky Brush tool to dabble drops of avocado green, harvest gold and burnt orange across the screen and then using the Electric Mixer tool,intriguing pictures can be created. Augment the activity with images of the Grateful Dead captured from the World Wide Web (using the screen capture utility in the Macintosh command+shift+3). Using the Stamp Tool, symbols of the era such as a Volkswagen Bug can be augmented with flowers, smile faces and butterflies. Accompany each image with synthesized or recorded psychedelic sounds.

If you are not willing to surf the Net on a quest for clip art, feel insecure about your artistic ability or just do not possess the time to brainstorm ideas for activities, here's a better way: use themes and artwork already created for you. Within most drawing and word-processing programs, including ClarisWorks, there are libraries of clip art. Additional clip art can also be acquired through mail order catalogs, often for less than fifty dollars. Clip art images are almost always grouped into basic categories. These categories have proven to be great themes for cause and effect activities. This is also a reasonable strategy for devising activities for people from whom it is difficult to collect information pertaining to their personal interests.

For example, most clip art galleries are organized into groups that usually include, sports, entertainment, and fashion. These serve as versatile themes for activities. The list of categories grows each day as more and more clip art libraries hit the market. Holidays are another great way to capitalize on clip art for cause and effect activities. In almost every package you can find hearts, candy, diamond rings for Valentine's Day as well as ghouls, goblins and gore for Halloween.

Many clip art collections contain numerous pictures of international landmarks. With such artwork, an "Around the World" activity can easily be created and include music representative of the country in which the landmark is located. For example, when an adult uses the activity, a picture of the Tax Molly can slowly grow in size as the Macintosh plays Indian inspired music. Press the switch again to bring up a picture of London Bridge while music reminiscent of the theme from Masterpiece Theater plays.

Likewise, it is always easy to find a wide array of musical instruments. Try creating a cause and effect activity based on different types of music. For example, the activity may include electric guitars that dance as rock'n'roll music is played. When the switch is pressed again violins may move slowly in tune to classical music. Another option would be to have jazz music play as moving trombones and saxophones jitter across the display.

Once cause and effect is established, many adults need to understand the way in which a scanning array works. In order to use a single switch scanning technique for communication, they must first understand the timing responses entailed with such an input method. One application that can be used to teach an adult these skills, is Speaking Dynamically from Mayer Johnson. The fact that this software has a built in capacity for scanning, eliminates the need to use other applications to make it switch accessible and thus requires less of your time. Traditionally viewed as strictly a means for facilitating communication, Speaking Dynamically has the capacity to play recorded sound effects, music, and even QuickTime videos. Rather than creating communication boards, try designing games inspired by popular game shows. For example, set up five columns with six buttons in each row. In each button on the top row, have names of categories such as "Famous Couples," "Fast Food" "1950" etc. Then under each category label the buttons $100,$200,$300 on so on. This creates a framework for a switch accessible game of Jeopardy.

Speaking Dynamically and IntelliPics also support QuickTime movies. Add photographs to the sideshow component of Kid Pix Studio and ClarisWorks and you can create your own QuickTime movies with these applications. Rather than having the adults view cartoon pictures of children and fuzzy animals, try making them the stars of their own activities. The Quick Cam by Connectix is an inexpensive way to snap photos and make films. Thus adults can be the characters in a soap opera or murder mystery and watch their peers on screen as they learn to manipulate their switches. Pictures can be decorated in Kid Pix, using the Stamp Tool.

If you still are not convinced that authoring programs are right for you, but work with clients that want to surf the Net, try setting up a scanning array that enables them to do so. Trends do not escape people with disabilities so they are not immune from Web fever that is inflicting the nation. Surfing the Net and sending e-mail are efficient ways for people to obtain and relay information.

The Discover Switch from Don Johnston, used in conjunction with ClickIt! from IntelliTools can be used together to create set-ups, or scanning arrays, that enable people who use a single switch input method to access Netscape, a popular Web browser. Given a choice between Vogue magazine on-line and CON sports, a sports buff quickly learns how to use a single switch scanning technique to find the latest scores versus the latest fashions.

Before you create a scanning set-up, select Web sites of interest to the intended user and make them Bookmarks in Netscape. Then using the Menu Keys feature within ClickIt!,give these Bookmarks keyboard equivalents. Make these keyboard equivalents the content of buttons in the scanning set-up using Discover:Create and the person is on their way. If they need extra mobility while navigating the Net, scrolling mechanisms can also be added to the set-up.

Finally, keep in mind that as your activities get more sophisticated in terms of graphics and sound, more memory (RAM) may need to be allocated to the applications. Remember this as you create your activities to help prevent you from getting too carried away. However, before spending time repeatedly imploring an adult to use a switch, or trying to convince them that the computer has great potential to serve their needs, create an activity with an authoring program and let the computer do the work. Rather than telling an adult with a disability multiple times to hit a switch, make an activity in which they will want to hit the switch and do so to interact with a program in which they derive enjoyment or find meaning.


References

Broderbund Software
Kid Pix Studio, V. 2.0. 1994-96
Novato, California

Claris Corporation
ClarisWorks, V. 4.0,1990-95
Salivas, California

Connectix
Quick Cam, 1995-96
San Mate, California

Don Johnson, Inc.
Discover:Switch, 1996
Weakened, Illinois

IntelliTools, Inc.
IntelliPics, V. 1.2 1994-95
ClickIt!, V.1.0 1994-95
Novato, California

Mayer-Johnson Co.
Speaking Dynamically, V. 1.2, 1990-95 by Dennis King
Solon Beach, California