Perspectives in Assistive Technology is a Winter Quarter Stanford course - entering its seventeenth year - that explores the design, development, and use of assistive technology that benefits people with disabilities and older adults. It consists of semi-weekly in-person discussions; lectures by notable professionals, clinicians, and assistive technology users; field trips to a local medical center and an accessible inclusive playground; an Assistive Technology Faire; and student project presentations and demonstrations.

Reminders for next academic year's course

Important dates:

• Monday, September 26th - First day of Fall Quarter classes
• Thursday, December 1st - Winter Quarter course enrollment opens
• Tuesday, January 10th - First class session of Perspectives in Assistive Technology

Community Attendance - Community members will be welcome to attend class sessions on campus - masking may be required.

Student Projects - I have received several student project suggestions, which I will develop into project descriptions for students to review. Community members' suggestions are solicited.

Guest Lecturer Scheduling Activities - Here are the steps I employ to schedule guest lecturers for the course.

1. Done - Email past guest lecturers to determine who is available to speak this coming academic year.

2. Done - Send inquiries to other individuals who have previously not participated in the course, requesting their availability to speak in the course. These individuals may be Stanford faculty or others working in an area related to assistive technology.

3. Done - Select individuals to speak in my course from the list of those who confirmed their availability. See list below.

4. Done - Request selected speakers provide a list of all class session dates they are available to present.

5. Done - Match speakers' availability with specific lecture dates to compile a schedule.

6. Done - Inform each speaker of their lecture date and request they to send a title of their presentation, bio-sketch, presentation abstract, and a head-shot photo.

7. Done - Publish the lecture schedule in the newsletter.

8. Pending - Update course webpages to reflect the entire schedule.

Guest Lecturer Schedule - Here is the finalized guest lecturer schedule. The course website will soon be updated to include a webpage for each class session, including lecture abstracts and presenters' photos and biosketches.

Request for student project suggestions - Project suggestions are continuing to be solicited.

Community members are strongly encouraged to submit project suggestions for students to pursue. These suggestions must address a real challenge experienced by an individual with a disability or older adult who lives in the local community that is not adequately served by existing commercial products. (Perform an internet search to verify this.) Identify and describe the challenge rather than imagining a solution. Please do this as soon as possible so I'll have adequate time to consider all submissions, edit approved entries, and post them. The deadline is Thursday, December 1st. If I accept your project suggestion, you will be invited to "pitch" it to the class on Thursday, January 12th. If a student team selects it, you will have the opportunity to offer your advice, direction, and expertise in person, by phone, and/or by email. For more information refer to the Call for Projects Suggestions and Project Requirements webpages.

This course relies on community involvement,
so please suggest a project based upon an identified problem or challenge.