ABSTRACT
John Williams
Challenges for Assistive Technology
It is important that we gather here to listen and to exchange ideas on the past, present and future of the impact of assistive technology’s upon people with disabilities worldwide. The futures of hundreds of millions of people with disabilities worldwide depend on the influential actions of individuals here.
Twenty-eight years ago, when I started writing about the benefits of assistive technologies to people with disabilities, my hair was brown, blond in the summer, and I weighed a 165 pounds. Today my hair is gray and, my weight is more than I want to reveal. I have been in this field so long that people call me the grandfather writer. It is a title that I bear with pride.
Since writing my first article on the benefits of a talking terminal for blind people, I have had about 1600 articles published on either users of assistive technology products or on products that I have evaluated.
With your permission, I want to mention the pass, speak about the present and using my crystal ball project the future of assistive technology.