Page 181 - Handbook of Electronic Assistive Technology

Chapter 6 • Environmental Control 169

• Feasibility of ongoing support of systems where it has to be assumed that the user
cannot resolve a fault or problem themselves.
• Battery back-up protection in case of electrical supply failure.
• Cyber security in terms of generalised denial or phishing attack, as well as individually
directed hacking attempts.
• Vulnerability to system updates by the providers or suppliers, especially affecting
particular features for special access for minority users.

Until product technology has matured and such factors have been resolved, dedicated
conventional EC devices are likely to continue to have a role in clinical prescription.

Alternative Access to Computer Technologies

Many EC services in the England now provide alternative access to computer options. Most
users have similar reasons for needing to access their computer device. This is generally
access to the internet and social media, including emails for communication along with
other formats such as messaging apps. Once control of the computer is achieved the user is
able to access most applications or software titles on that computer such as word process-
ing, spreadsheets, drawing packages along with eReader titles, media players etc.
The development of specialist EC devices has occurred during the era of the personal com-
puter, and has progressively taken advantage of this technology. As computers began to form
a routine part of the home environment from the 1970s, there was also interest in enabling
access to them for those who were unable to use the standard keyboard and cursor input.
However, the development of alternative access to a computer has been largely sepa-
rate from that of the dedicated EC controllers, until recently. As the role of the personal
computer grew, so many different and varied methods of access developed, also reflecting
the significant role of such devices in people’s lives. This applied especially to people to
whom they can provide a communication ‘voice’ and a means for social participation with
equality in the virtual world of the internet. Therefore an ECS may be controlled by any of
the access technologies used in other types of EAT (Chapter 5).

Text Entry Methods

Common text entry methods for computer access are:
• Keyboards.
• Onscreen keyboards.
• Speech recognition: This can be a fast and effective way to input text into a computer.
Many systems come with a speech recognition function included but they can vary in
accuracy. Depending on their sophistication, many allow the user to edit text, perform
commands as well as dictating text.

Voice commands are different to dictation of text in that the command can be assigned
a function; this can often be keyboard shortcuts to operate a particular control. For