Perspectives is the newsletter of the Stanford course,
Perspectives in Assistive Technology.

Pre-Summer Update

This newsletter issue summaries last academic year's course
and describes plans for the coming year.

Pre-Summer Update

Greetings to members of the Stanford's Assistive Technology course community,

I hope you are doing well - being vaccinated and getting boosted, staying healthy, and being safe - during this post-pandemic time. Over the past several months, I have wrapped up the Winter Quarter Assistive Technology course, including reading and marking up students' end-of-term reports, submitting grades, and creating a few slideshows. While the course was not completely in-person this year due to guest lecturers who were sick or tested positive for COVID or preferred to present by Zoom, I am optimistic about returning to a totally in-person course structure next year. Here is my report on what has happened since the middle of of March and my thoughts for the future.

Review of last academic year's course

Thanks - First, I would like to thank everybody who participated in the course as a student, a guest lecturer, an Assistive Technology Faire vendor, a project partner, or an interested community member. Your interest and contributions are much appreciated.

Students - This past academic year, the course enrolled 44 students who attended in-person or zoomed in. Thirty-five worked on team or individual projects. Here is a slideshow of their projects and some photographs from their project demonstrations.

Comments - For the most part, the course went well. I will be posting some student comments in the next few weeks.

Plans for next year's course

In-person instruction - Hopefully an improved pandemic situation will allow all courses will be taught in-person. And I hope that masking will not be required as covering up a portion of the face has made it very difficult for me to identify enrolled students.

Course activities - In-person course activities and features pursued next year include: team projects, community attendance in class sessions, field trips, in-person Assistive Technology Faire, movie night, and most importantly, chocolate chip cookies.

Classroom assignment - I hope that the classroom I have used in 2019, 2020, and 2022 - Lathrop 282 - will be assigned to my course once again. The room's moveable chairs and tables allow it to be repurposed for specific events and is more accessible for wheelchair users.

Course schedule - I plan to follow my standard course strategy of inviting guest lecturers to present in class sessions. I do not anticipate many new presenters. Contacting them, getting their available dates, and scheduling the class sessions will occur over the next several months.

Upcoming solicitations

Project and Faire solicitations - In preparation for the upcoming Winter Quarter course offering, I would like to begin to solicit projects suggestions from community members now and Assistive Technology Faire vendor participation in the futurer. Here are some project criteria to consider:

1. Team project suggestions must address a real challenge experienced by an individual with a disability or older adult who lives in the local community. The problem or struggle must be one that is not adequately served by existing commercial products. (Perform an internet search to verify this.) It is important to identify and describe the challenge rather than imagine a solution.
2. The scale of the project must be such that it could be pursued by a team of three students in the 10-week quarter, resulting in a fabricated functional prototype.
3. Refer to Project Requirements webpage for further information.

Here is an example project suggestion that should guide your project suggestion thinking:

Please contact me with your ideas, questions, comments, and project suggestions - or just to say hello. Please continue to stay safe & healthy.

Dave Jaffe - Course Instructor