(Editor's note: This article is part of a series that looks at how IBM technology is transforming the way people live, work and learn.)
Dr. Wayne Dick earned his Ph.D. in math without ever looking at the chalkboard where his professors were writing equations. That’s because he was born with toxoplasmosis, which destroyed his retinas and left him with minimal vision.
When Wayne was a school kid, he couldn’t read the standard-size print used in textbooks. So he used some of the first “talking books” instead. Recorded by the National Library Service, the talking books were actually thick vinyl records. They were recorded at half-speed so more content would fit on a disc, and Wayne needed a special machine to listen; he carted the heavy reading machine between home and school. Not many of the talking records were available then, so Wayne asked his friends and family to read his text books to him so he could keep up with his studies.
Eventually, talking books came out on cassettes, the machines to play them became portable, and more books became available. Wayne earned his doctoral degree in math and eventually became a professor at California State University, Long Beach, where he is now chair of the computer engineering and computer sciences department. But Wayne still couldn’t read books by himself.
Fortunately, California State University, Long Beach, where Wayne teaches, is a college committed to equal opportunity. It’s a lively, urban school with a diverse population and a sizeable number of students and professors who live with disabilities.
Always on the lookout for new technology that can make learning easier for members of the campus community, Wayne came upon a scientific paper written by Dr. Vicki Hanson, manager of accessibility research for the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York. In her article, Dr. Hanson described new software, IBM WebAdapt2Me, which helps people with various disabilities customize the way they browse the Web.
Professor Dick thought the software sounded just right for use on campus. The university participates in the California Alternative Media Project, which makes all textbooks used by state colleges available to students and faculty on the Internet. With the new WebAdapt2Me software, Wayne thought, individuals could read those online textbooks more easily. It turned out he was right.
Wayne and Vicki formed a group of 10 “adventurers” at the university to test the software in a college setting. The group included a drama student and a history professor and an associate dean. One has vision problems, one is a quadriplegic, but they all have that adventurous spirit and, Wayne said, are people “who are not afraid to experiment.”
Incorporating feedback from this early user group, IBM provided 200 licenses of WebAdapt2Me to the university as part of an IBM Global Services engagement. IBM also provided software - including IBM WebSphere® Application Server and IBM Tivoli® Directory Server - that allows the university to integrate IBM WebAdapt2Me into the university’s Web delivery environment. IBM also is providing configuration and installation services, as well as maintenance and support services.
People using WebAdapt2Me who have low vision can change the size of the type, the color and the contrast of the page for easier viewing, and change the page layout for easier navigation.
Wayne likes to use a plain Tahoma font, cranked up to the largest font size, with a larger-than-normal separation between lines. He likes beige best as the background color and he spreads the words out across the page, and puts headlines in a separate box so they don’t take up too much space. “If the color, contrast, size and style of the text is not right,” Wayne explained, “reading is uncomfortable and nauseating.”
Before trying WebAdapt2Me, Wayne used to look at scientific journals using a magnifying glass, with his neck bent over the magazine and his face as close to the page as he could get it. He’d use a computer with his nose pressed right up against the screen.
Using WebAdapt2Me has transformed the experience of reading - and learning - for Wayne. “For someone like me to be able to sit back and read and not have reading be a constant physical challenge is something quite unexpected in my life,” he said. His fellow campus adventurers feel the same.
“Now, with new programs like WebAdapt2Me, everyone can look at the same book and learn the same content, rendered in the way that works best,” Wayne said. “I love the name WebAdapt2Me,” he added, “because with the range of disabilities people live with, one size of technology does not fit all.”
One of the features of WebAdapt2Me Wayne likes the most is its ability to enlarge the type with “intelligent reformatting” for a smaller computer screen. That means Wayne can use WebAdapt2Me on his 12-inch portable computer that weighs just five pounds.
Now Wayne has liberated himself from his home office and his desktop computer, and carries his laptop computer with him anywhere he wants to be. For the first time, he can read at the kitchen table at breakfast, or in the living room while his family watches TV, or in bed with his wife. “WebAdapt2Me” he said, “turns every computer into a reading machine.”
California State University Long Beach will soon make WebAdapt2Me available to anyone on campus who wants to use it. That includes adults who are returning to campus to train for new careers, and the participants in the school’s Senior Citizen Education Program, which draws students age 60 and older.
“We have 10,000 people with disabilities in the California State University system,” Wayne concluded. “We could have 10,000 different accommodations. Or we could provide them with WebAdapt2Me.”