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electronic and information technology to be accessible to those with disabilities. This and
legislation in other countries provided some legal basis to challenge issues with web and
computer accessibility and drove better adherence to accessibility frameworks and stan-
dards, particularly in the domain of web accessibility (‘GSA Government-wide Section 508
Accessibility Program’, 2017).

Standalone Integration

The first attempts to integrate standalone assistive systems emerged in the early 1990s.
These efforts were based around wheelchair controls and providing the ability for an indi-
vidual to use their wheelchair control to control the chair and also additional separate
standalone devices.
Hawley et al. (1992) suggested that the purpose of integrated control systems is to allow
disabled people to access multiple functions from a single input device (e.g., a switch). In
this way people with multiple disabilities can switch between operation of a wheelchair,
communication aid, computer or their EC without requesting help from another person.

By the mid-1990s the concept of integration of AT in its own right had emerged. In their
paper, Cherry et al. (1996) described integration as a rehabilitation integrated system
and categorised it as:

1. ‘Mechanical’ integration: a group of separate assistance devices has individual
input devices.
2. ‘Hardwired’ integration: a group of separate assistance devices where two or
more or all of these are operated from a single input device usually via a selection
and switching interface.
3. ‘Computer’ integration: a single input device accessing via an ‘intelligent and
readily reconfigurable’ interface a number of assistive functional outputs; at least
indirect access to standard computer applications.
4. ‘Multimodal’ computer integration: a choice of input devices is available to operate
a number of assistance devices (still with an intelligent and readily reconfigurable
interface), direct access to standard computer applications is possible.
Cherry et al. (1996)
Communication Aid and Environmental Control Software

A fundamental shift in the development of communication aids provided potential ‘side-
effect’ integration benefits. Initial communication aids had been based on microcon-
trollers or operating systems functioning in a console mode (i.e., where the operating
system was not exposed to the user). These devices have often been termed ‘dedicated
devices’. In the early 1990s, with the advent of more flexible and accessible operating sys-
tems and more portable computer systems, AAC software that ran on operating systems
on nondedicated computer platforms emerged.