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Established in 1992, PPD's mission is to reach out to students with disabilities, many of whom have been stifled in high school and college by neglect or ignorance. "For far too long, we've been closing disabled people out of science and math in the classroom, the laboratory, and the workplace. The situation, if perpetuated, will inevitably have sorry implications that extend beyond the confines of science and mathematics," says Lawrence Scadden, PPD's director. Scadden, who is blind and has a PhD, is internationally recognized for his work in designing technology applications for people with disabilities. He believes that in our increasingly technological society, it's vital that all citizens be conversant with science, math, and technology so they can take their place in the 21st-century workforce and make informed judgments about the social issues bound up in the sciences. UNSTOPPABLE WILL. "There's a vast lot of intelligent people who simply don't know how to accommodate the disabled," says Scadden. "They don't have any idea how disabled men and women do science. They don't even realize that they can do science." In some instances, able-bodied students don't want persons with disabilities in their classrooms or labs because they're afraid the disabled students will slow them down. They don't want competition for their time at the lab bench. "These attitudes have created a major barrier that must be removed," according to Scadden. Enter the PPD -- and when you look at the history of science, it's not much of a stretch to understand its commitment. From Italian Renaissance astronomer Galileo (who was blind) to Albert Einstein (who was dyslexic) to contemporary astrophysicist Stephen Hawking (whose movement and speech are severely affected by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease), the annals of pathbreaking research are replete with the work of people with disabilities. An unstoppable will to overcome barriers seems to be an essential ingredient in the scientific method. Seventeen of the 103 elements in the periodic table were discovered by scientists who happened to have disabilities. With an annual budget of $5 million, PPD focuses on helping young people with hearing, visual, orthopedic, and speech impairments, and with learning disabilities such as dyslexia and attention-deficit disorder, in the study of science and engineering. Scadden's goal is to extend those efforts further to people with mental retardation and emotional disturbance. ILL-PREPARED. The program's mission is buttressed by a 1996 NSF study of 450 college students who were pursuing majors in science or engineering, 50 of whom said they had a disability. Among the findings: Most of them had a keen interest in their field before or during high school, but fewer than half (48%) of those with disabilities felt they were adequately prepared for college. Most science and engineering majors with disabilities said they had problems in communicating with professors and their fellow students. And 60% of the students with disabilities reported that instructional accommodations -- such as assistance with test-taking, library or research support, and note-taking -- were either rarely or never provided. The PPD funds demonstration projects aimed at reducing such barriers. It also funds R&D programs for students who can't operate instruments or can't see or read lab experiments, graphs, or data. The program also shares its findings on successful strategies for allowing students with disabilities to excel with the rest of the science community. A few examples: --A project at the University of Delaware allows students with disabilities to conduct their lab work using lab-simulation software and powerful workstations. --The Multisensory Calculus Program for Students with Visual Impairments at the City University of New York's College of Staten Island and Baruch College uses audio and tactile technology to provide blind students access to graphical information for calculus courses. The project also provides scanners with optical-recognition software and Braille printers (or speech-access systems for those who don't read Braille) so that conventional printed or displayed text material can be accessed by blind students. --At Oregon State University in Corvallis, a PPD project called Science, Engineering, Education, and Disabilities, SEED for short, is developing computer-based audio systems that allow people with visual and learning disabilities to better understand science, mathematics, and engineering literature. The software tells students where they are on the page, and it lets them arrange data anywhere they want on the computer screen or on documents. This enables students with disabilities to produce more scholarly documents and to make better presentations to a teacher or professor for discussion. To learn more about the NSF's activities, visit www.nsf.gov or call (703) 306-1234. Share your opinion of Bowe's new book on BW Online's Assistive Tech Forum. Or, if you have a question about assistive technology, write to John at JMMAW@aol.com EDITED BY DOUGLAS HARBRECHT |
