ATA3 Toolkit for AT Awareness and Anywhere Access to Computers - This project will address the barriers faced by people with disabilities who need assistive technologies (AT) in order to use computers in schools, libraries, government services, and other locations, that are available to ‘everyone’, but not those who use AT. Goal: For AT users to have access to all of the same computers as their peers. The five-year project will pilot free open-source tools/resources, optimize them for use in low and near-zero-resource organizations/communities, and then test readiness for mass adoption through implementations in K-12 schools, community colleges, libraries, government centers, senior centers and other places where computers are provided for “everyone” to access. Specific objectives include: (1) working collaboratively with these diverse stakeholders to ensure “near-zero-effort-deployment” versions of the tools/resources; (2) pilot test the tools/resources in four diverse settings (small rural K-12 school district, community college, library, and an AT center); (3) deploy, test, and continually, collaboratively improve the tools, with emphasis on low-resource use, in at least 30 diverse sites and environments; and (4) evaluate the effectiveness of these tools/resources at increasing the a) awareness, b) availability, and c) use of assistive technologies, as well as d) greatly increasing the % of computers provided for “everyone” that are also usable by those who need AT. Anticipated outcomes are increases of 1,000% to 10,000% on each of these measures and beginnings of widespread adoption. Products include the tools and an improved model for knowledge/technology transfer of open-source technologies in low-resource environments.
