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Students Build a Car that the Visually Impaired Can Drive

  The same technology that lets cars drives themselves allows the visually impaired to drive too. Virginia Tech undergraduates packed an all – terrain buggy with technology lifted from the university’s DARPA Urban Challenge entry to create a car the visually impaired can drive. The semi-autonomous vehicle uses  a laser range finder, voice software and other sensory technology. It worked flawlessly when visually impaired drivers took the wheel on a closed course. Advocates for the visually impaired joined the lead researcher in calling the vehicle a breakthrough in independent living for the visually impaired.
 “We are not only excited about the vehicle itself, but also, the potential spinoff technologies from this project that could end up helping the visually impaired,” says Dennis Hong, the Director of the University’s Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory.
   In 2004, the National Federation of the Blind issued a challenge, when it called on universities to develop a vehicle for the visually impaired. Virginia Tech accepted the challenge in 2006,- the only university to do so, recieving a $3,000 grant to begin the project.
   The Visually Impaired Challenge team at Virginia Tech’s Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory built the buggy. The steering wheel is hooked up to a distance monitor that gathers information from laser range finders. It uses voice software to tell the driver how far to turn the wheel.
   A vibrating vest provides cues to follow when accelerating and decelerating. The vest vibrates in different places – the back, belly and the shoulders-to convey different commands. When the entire vest vibrates, it means, “slam on the brakes!” 
 “The 2009-2010 team will be applying technology to an electric vehicle to eliminate the vibration caused by the motor altogether." The system, called Airpix, shoots compressed air through tiny holes on a screen in real time, to provide a layout of the area surrounding the vehicle. Drivers can "read" map with a hand, much like Braille. Hong said he needs more feedback from the visually impaired to refine the system.
All this technology is clearly in its earliest stages. We’re a long way from the day when the visually impaired join us slogging through the morning commute. But the Federation of the Blind hailed the vehicle and the promise it offers.
"It’s a great first step," Wes Majerus, an access-technology expert for the federation, said in a press release."As far as the differences between human instructions and those given by the voice in the blind Driver Challenge car, the car’s instructions are very precise. You use the technology to act on the environment – the driving course- in a very orderly manner."

The Real Truth about Reasonable Accommodations

by Nadine Vogel, President, Springboard Consulting LLC

Many would-be employers cite the cost of accommodations as a barrier to employing people with disabilities. If only they knew that nearly half of all accommodations cost nothing. That’s right. Nothing. In a 2006 survey conducted by the Job Accommodation Network ( JAN), a service of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy, 46 percent of the employers surveyed reported that the accommodations needed by employees and job applicants with disabilities cost absolutely nothing. The typical onetime expenditure for accommodations that did have a cost was $500, but only $300 more than what was typically needed for an employee without a disability in the same position.

In order to disabuse potential employers of the myths surrounding reasonable accommodations, I believe it’s important that the disability community know the facts as well. To that end,  I’d like to give you  fuel for your fire:

Accommodation Benefits

When the Job Accommodation Network (JAN) surveyed employers about making accommodations, they found the following:

Accommodations are effective.

Seventy-five percent of the respondents reported that the accommodations they implemented were either "very effective" or "extremely effective."

Employers experience multiple direct and indirect benefits.

   The most frequently mentioned direct benefits were:

o  Retaining a valued employee (86 percent);

o  Increasing the employee’s productivity (71 percent);

o  Eliminating the costs associated with training a new employee (56 percent).

                 The most widely reported indirect benefits were:

o  Improving colleague interaction (67 percent);

o  Increasing overall company morale (58 percent); and

o  Increasing overall company productivity (56 percent).

Accommodations produce financial benefits.

According to the employers who participated in JAN’s study, on average, for every dollar they put into making an accommodation, they "got back" a little over $10 in benefits.

Armed with this knowledge, you can be an advocate for yourself and other job-seekers with disabilities.

My new book, Dive In, Springboard into the Profitability, Productivity, and Potential of the Special Needs Workforce* provides the information that employers need in order to make the business case for employing and properly supporting people with disabilities, parents of children with special needs, and older workers with age-related impairments. Dive In provides facts, and success stories. I’d love to hear yours.  

Contact Nadine at (973) 813-7260 or [email protected] .