Tools to provide access abound

'|'SPECIAL TO GCNMandates are easier made than met. That's especially true when it comes to complying with the accessibility requirements of Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act Amendments of 1998.No single product or practice will satisfy 508's requirements. But deadlines are looming from the Access Board'the first one is June 21'and the Federal Acquisition Regulation. Information technology managers are looking for small-scale desktop hardware and software to apply on an ad hoc basis for individual users. The products listed in the accompanying charts are inexpensive, readily available and easy to install.Beyond Section 508's vague requirement that Internet and computer data be accessible is the FAR's general rule that most government IT purchases made on or after June 25 take accessibility options into account.New PC designs will help meet requirements, but in many cases agencies will also have to buy special hardware or software to install on existing or new equipment to make it accessible.Before you make your purchase decisions, it's important to understand the range of available accessories that will help you comply with 508. In many cases, you can still rely on large procurement contracts for hardware and make only a few additional purchases of adaptive accessories or software for individual users' needs.There is no such thing as a universally accessible computer, so this is the best approach anyway. It also fits agencies' traditional purchasing methods.Start your search for compliance assistance at . This Access Board site spells out what 508 means to your agency.When you read this explanation, it's instructive to note that the entire Americans with Disabilities Act already applies to most federal offices, even if it's seldom strictly enforced.The exact requirements of 508 are open to interpretation. But government clearly is making a major effort to renovate its offices as well as the public face of Web sites accessible to disabled users.The full 508 standard is posted at .The quantity and range of user needs and products that would make equipment usable by people with different and sometimes multiple disabilities are what complicate ADA and 508 compliance.For many users you have to address both input and output, each of which could require different solutions.You can manage some situations with software. You can solve other problems with hardware standalone devices, rather than accessories that attach to standard computers. Other situations require a mix of hardware and software.Input and control tasks pose particular obstacles for users with visual and motor-control impairments. About the only good news is that hearing-impaired users normally have little trouble using standard computers and software. Audible clues are often available on computers, but many hearing users work with PCs and Macintosh systems daily without relying on any audible feedback.Most visually impaired users type on a standard keyboard, but for those who cannot there are two kinds of braille keyboards'straight line and ergonomic. It's necessary to know which one your user needs.Even the best touch typist or braille user needs to know what they have typed. For the latter, sometimes a large monitor on which you can change the contrast settings and use low-resolution video settings is enough, especially if you select large fonts in your word processor and other software.You can go a step further with magnification and high-contrast software that makes Microsoft Windows, for instance, easier to use.But users with severe visual impairments need a workstation with another form of output, such as refreshable braille or speech synthesis.For this kind of help, you could turn to a personal digital assistant. PDAs have become vital office tools, and their adaptive capabilities are ahead of standard hardware technology.Braille and speech output note-takers, which are nothing more than PDAs with an alternative output device, have been around for years.Many are used in the field to store data for later downloading into an office computer. Some also are used as alternate output devices for a desktop PC or notebook. In this case, the unit performs two roles, as a PDA and a display, and is thus very cost-effective.The other major category of disabilities that agencies must address is mobility.Mobility impairments can run the gamut from missing digits or limbs, to neurological conditions that prevent fine motor control, to repetitive stress injuries that make it necessary to alter the way long-time employees have worked for years.Keyboards that conform to natural positions of hands and arms fall into the category of ergonomic devices rather than adaptive technology, but the progression of RSI can blur the boundary between these categories.Also available are even more extreme key devices, such as one-handed, extra large or, to minimize arm movement, extra small keyboards.Pointing devices other than mice can be used by anyone, but are especially important for disabled workers.Mouse alternatives include foot-operated mouse emulators, trackballs, touchpads, joysticks with mouse emulation software either built in or installed on the computer, and a variety of custom switch devices for people with special needs.Microsoft Corp. operating systems come with the MouseKeys program, which lets users move the cursor using a keypad. You can use the program with separate keypads for notebook PCs or with desktop PCs using a standard Windows keyboard.Speech recognition software still is not perfect, but for many years it has been good enough to serve disabled individuals ().Fast, accurate speech recognition that interprets normal speech is an excellent way to control computers, or at least to input text. Until recently, three major contenders were vying for a place in the desktop PC market for accessibility items. Your office might already have their software.IBM Corp.'s ViaVoice and Dragon NaturallySpeaking from Lernout & Hauspie'which bought Dragon Systems Inc. last year and has since encountered rough economic going'are both inexpensive, relatively sophisticated programs that are perfectly suited to providing some mobility-impaired users with ways to navigate their screens and input text.ViaVoice is included in some new IBM systems.The third contender is Voice Express from Lernout & Hauspie.There are two kinds of basic speech recognition. The easiest to develop is discrete speech, which does a good job of recognizing single words. This has been around for many years. The second kind, continuous speech software capable of understanding normal speech, was introduced by Dragon Systems in 1997 and is still in need of improvement. Most programs have the ability to learn a user's speech patterns and pronunciation. They begin as speaker independent systems but rapidly become much more accurate for a specific user.Such a program is often priced according to the size of its vocabulary. But it isn't necessarily better to have a program with a large vocabulary'the more words it can recognize, the more sound-alike words it will have to reconcile.The best option often is to get a program with a small working vocabulary to which you can add job-specific terminology. This both speeds recognition processing and increases accuracy.Other companies, such as SpeechWorks International Inc. of Boston and Philips Electronics of Atlanta, offer powerful server-based continuous speech recognition systems, but they are not systems you could buy and install in time to meet the 508 deadlines.XXXSPLITXXX-XXXSPLITXXX-