Objectives: The goal of this study is the technology transfer of the desktop publishing (DTP) curriculum developed in the 1991-1994 Vocational Training Facility VA Merit Review Project. The company DPI Services, Corp., San Jose, CA, has received a grant to perform a feasibility study o how the VTF curriculum could be expanded to other disability groups.
Research Plan: The company Disabled Programmers, Inc. (DPI) has a successful track record in training peple with disabilities in computer programming skills. Its for-profit counterpart, DPI Services (DPIS), employs DPI graduates to perform programming jobs under contract with major Silicon Valley corporations. DPIS wishes to expand its training offerings to attrtact more students, and is interested in exploring whether desktop publishing (DTP) could be an economically feasible area for expansion. It has applied for and received a Phase-1 Small Business Innovation and Research (SBIR) grant from theU.S. Dept. of Education to explore this avenue.
Methods: The VA Palo Alto Rehabilitation R&D center will loan DPIS a Macintosh workstation with the curriculum materials, multimedia equipment and computer adaptive access devices used in the VTF Project. The curriculum currently contains job skills, adaptive access and communications skills training information specific to SCI quadriplegia only (the VTF focus). We will work with DPIS to research the content necessary to train people with other disabilities. We will modify the curriculum and add adaptive access devices for different functional requirements and test them on several DPIS employees.
Findings: In 6 months, we will have completed the project. Our main deliverable is the identification of additions to the curriculum to make the VTF appropriate to teach people with a variety of disabilities rather than just SCI alone. DPIS can then determine whether the project is feasible, and will decide at that point whether to apply for continuation Phase-2 SBIR funding.