Home March 2002 Vol 63 No 2 Lazzaro book review

College and Research Libraries
March 2002, Vol. 63, No. 2

Book Review

Lazzaro, Joseph J. Adaptive Technologies for Learning & Work Environments, 2nd ed. Chicago: ALA (ALA Editions), 2001. 204p. $48, alk. paper (ISBN 0838908047). LC 2001-035284; $35, CD-ROM (ISBN 0838908144).

Substantially revised from the 1993 first edition, the second edition of Adaptive Technologies for Learning & Work Environments addresses the assistive technology needs of the learning disabled in addition to the needs of people with sensory, physical, and speech disabilities. Slimmed down from 251 to 204 pages, the second edition has eliminated the illustrations and individual product descriptions contained in the earlier edition. In their place are general overviews of categories of adaptive technologies, with specific product and vendor information located in five disability-specific appendixes.

The work is divided into ten chapters. The first chapter provides an overview, in lay terms, of personal computer hardware. The necessity for the inclusion of a chapter on these basics is validated by statistics indicating that only one-quarter of people with disabilities own computers and only one-tenth ever use the Internet.

Chapter two is a general introduction to using keyboard and platform-specific, built-in accessibility features instead of a mouse to operate a computer. It addresses the Windows, Macintosh, and Unix platforms. Chapters three through seven discuss technologies designed to assist individuals with visual, hearing, motor, speech, and learning disabilities, respectively. Braille displays, visual indicator software, word-prediction software, touch screens, adapted switches, and speech-synthesis systems are some of the many adaptive technologies described that enable the disabled to use computers on the job, at home, in the library, or at school. A few non-computer-related assistive devices, such as handheld magnifiers and text telephones, also are discussed.

Adaptive technology is not one-size-fits-all, nor is it plug-and-play. The necessity for building a solid foundation for adaptive technology in universities, libraries, and other public facilities is described in chapter eight. This entails having an evaluation by an assistive technology specialist prior to purchasing equipment and in providing training and technical support. Chapter nine is an overview on making intranets and the Internet accessible. Those needing more information on accessibility may want to consult chapter two of Barbara Mates’s Adaptive Technology for the Internet: Making Electronic Resources Accessible to All (ALA, 2000) or Michael Paciello’s Web Accessibility for Persons with Disabilities (CMP Books, 2000). Chapter ten addresses funding adaptive technology and covers personal, government, and private-sector sources of funds.

Appendix materials comprise 50 percent of the book. Especially useful are those providing Microsoft Windows 98 and Apple Macintosh keyboard shortcuts (welcomed greatly by this Mac user with low vision). Moreover, there are appendices detailing product, platform, and vendor contact information for more than two hundred products, arranged by type of disability: visual, hearing, speech, motor, and learning. The only outdated information was found for Productivity Works (now isSound), which discontinued the selling, enhancing, and supporting of its talking browser, pwWebSpeak, on January 1, 2001. The appendices also include a directory of national disability-related clearinghouses and organizations. The directory is followed by a list of toll-free telephone hotlines of national organizations concerned with disability and children’s issues, appendices summarizing key provisions of adaptive technology and disability rights laws, and a list of RESNA Technology Assistance Project state contacts. The volume concludes with an eight-page subject index. Because the four-page table of contents provides a detailed outline of each chapter, the index is useful, but not essential as a finding tool.

Much of the information covered by Lazzaro is similarly treated in Computer and Web Resources for People with Disabilities, 3rd ed. (The Alliance for Technology Access, 2000). With recent mergers and acquisitions among adaptive technology vendors, Lazzaro’s book is more up-to-date than the ATA volume. On the other hand, the ATA work provides a quick and uniform overview of a particular adaptive technology, what it is used for, its potential users, which features to consider, and the costs. Adaptive Technologies for Learning & Work Environments also complements Barbara Mates’s Adaptive Technology for the Internet, which is aimed primarily at librarians. Lazzaro’s work is more current than Mates’s with respect to adaptive technology and does not suffer from the high incidence of inaccurate URLs that is a problem in the Mates volume.

Written in nontechnical language for people with disabilities, Adaptive Technologies for Learning & Work Environments is also a resource for employers, educators, service providers, and the families of those individuals. With ALA’s recent passage of the Library Services for People with Disabilities Policy and its Century Scholarship (funding services or accommodation for a library school student with disabilities admitted to an ALA-accredited library school), this is also a recommended read for librarians and library school faculty. Libraries with Lazzaro’s first edition will want to replace it with this one. Recommended for all types of libraries. Where appropriate, libraries may want to consider the cross-platform CD-ROM version of the book, which makes the text accessible in HTML to users with disabilities.—J. Christina Smith, Boston University.