TOPIC 9.
Development or Adaptation of Devices or Technologies
to Assist Children, Youth, and Adults with Disabilities
in the Arts, Recreation, or Leisure-Time Activities

• Music Touch: Adaptive Technology for Teaching Music Braille and Musical Concepts
• Virtual Mesa Verde: An Interactive Media Program for Young Persons with Physical Disabilities
• CD-ROM of Visually Represented Songs for Young Deaf Children
• Acoustically-Prompted Karaoke for the Blind and the Visually-Impaired

Abstract:
Problem Definition. Mainstreaming has spawned a critical loss of teaching resources for braille music. This circumstance impedes full participation in school music programs, hindering literacy and equal access to information.

Objective. Develop a set of software functions to support the use of a hardware prototype of a braille computer keyboard overlay, developed by TACK-TILES Braille Systems, LLC, for the IntelliKeys keyboard from IntelliTools. Make improvements concurrently to the design of the hardware prototype based on field testing.

The system will allow the user to press an individual braille character shown on a Tack-Tile block mounted securely on the keyboard. The key press will trigger a musical tone, a verbal cue or sound effect. Use of this system will be integrated into an introductory set of lessons on music braille. These lessons will be tested by educators and blind music students at the beginner level.

Summary of Anticipated Results and Implications:
Anticipated Results. Multimedia teaching system for music braille.

Commercial Applications. Market teaching system to schools who serve blind musicians.

Abstract:
Mesa Verde National Park is a UNESCO designated World Heritage Cultural Site. Its unique beauty, ecological variety, archeological history, and expert staff make it a true national treasure. However, some of the attractions are only partially accessible and others are inaccessible to people with mobility impairments. Information about facilities for the handicapped at the Park and in the surrounding area can be incomplete and difficult to obtain. These factors make Mesa Verde a recreational resource that is underutilized by handicapped people, their families, and their friends.

We propose to develop an interactive web-based Virtual Reality tour of MVNP. This will be the first in a series of programs providing detailed, immersive, multidimensional, virtual experiences of exemplary National Parks for persons with mobility impairments. The target audience for this prototype program will be young women and men - ages 14 to 30 - with Spinal Cord Injuries. In addition to the experiential aspects of the program, we will provide online trip planning services for people with disabilities. We expect that these personalized features, along with linkages to Park information, and guides to accessible accommodations, will promote and enable visits to the Park for segments of our target audience.

Summary of Anticipated Results and Implications:
Individual interviews and focus groups with target group members and an expert panel of consultants will be undertaken during the design stage of the project. In addition to these formative research activities a small scale randomized trial will be conducted with SCI patients. The summative research will provide information about short and intermediate term outcomes and viewer preferences for three packaging approaches. We will use these findings to plan a Phase II project that will include virtual tours of other parks and historical sites in the Southwest Region, along with travel planning information tailored for other groups of persons with mobility impairments.

Potential Commercial Applications. The 44 million persons with physical disabilities represent significant niche markets for Virtual Reality based recreation products and leisure planning services. Marketing to schools, special education programs, rehabilitation facilities, handicapped persons, libraries, bookstores, and online services is planned. Sales will be via hybrid CD-ROM, web-subscriptions, Internet-advertising, and collaborative ventures with service providers for persons with mobility impairments.

Abstract:
Music is an important part of social development for young children and has proven to contribute to mathematic, linguistic, and motor development. Deaf children are not privy to the nursery rhymes and songs that hearing children learn as a part of their culture. This project will initiate development of a CD-ROM for young deaf children in which (1) the story/concept, (2) volume, (3) notes, and (4) rhythm of three simple songs are depicted through graphic representations of each of these aspects that are coordinated with each other. Audio information will be converted to numerical data, which in turn, will be mathematically analyzed to provide depictions of the sound components. Programming in Visual Basic will control presentation and timing of graphics. Videoclips of ASL translations and word-for-word signed representations of the songs will be elective features. An interpreter dressed as a signing "dog," used as lead character for other IDRT preschool CD-ROM materials, will be filmed for this purpose.

Phase II will result in development of three CD-ROM's of five songs each. During Phase III, the CD-ROMs will be marketed through educational software distributors, many of whom already distribute other IDRT products.

Summary of Anticipated Results and Implications:
Phase I of this project will demonstrate the technical feasibility of producing a CD-ROM that imparts the story/concept, volume, notes, and rhythm of traditional, early childhood songs to deaf children along with ASL translations and word-for-word depictions synchronized to the music. Phase II will result in the complete development of three CD-ROMs, each containing five songs. During Phase III, the CD-ROMs will be marketed through educational software distributors and through our animated web site.

Abstract:
Conventional karaoke uses visual prompting to enable spontaneous sing-along without prior memorization of lyrics. This means that the blind and visually-impaired are largely excluded from participation. But Troubadour Enterprises has invented a recording method and play-system for acoustically-prompted karaoke. This is the Acoustiprompter. Through a four-track play system with headphones, the Acoustiprompter provides stereo music, optional lead-guide vocal, and optional, user-controlled acoustical prompting of the lyrics - which is to say that the words, rapidly spoken and appropriately phrased, are delivered just before they are needed so that the blind and visually-impaired can easily, naturally, and enjoyably participate in an otherwise unavailable recreational activity. In the first phase of this research, studies of volunteers using a singing booth set up to simulate the Acoustiprompter experience will be carried out with the cooperation of the Overbrook School for the Blind, in Philadelphia, to measure learning curve, ease of use; acceptability, and participant satisfaction. The objective of this Phase I research is to test the efficacy of the Acoustiprompter system and the feasibility of its commercial development.

Summary of Anticipated Results and Implications:
It is anticipated that the Phase I study will pave the way for development of a line of user-friendly, convenient, inexpensive, personal, portable cassette-players and mini CD-players that apply the Acoustiprompter systern, together with dedicated software. No new technological development will be needed. The technology in existing players currently retailing from $99 to $190 can easily and inexpensively be redesigned and adapted to the Acoustiprompter system through the addition of preamplification and mixing components. The Phase II objective win be to produce and test a finished prototype, hardware and software, of the Acoustiprompter Player, which, it is hoped, will become a staple of the personal, portable cassette/CD market.

[Topic 8]

[Topic 10]