Press Release - BT Datazone Project

Collaboration between BT technologists and a national charity is looking to enrich the lives of wheelchair users.

The latest meeting took place when members of a residential college run by SCOPE, the charity that helps people with cerebral palsy, visited Adastral Park.

Adam Oliver, head of corporate social responsibility and age and disability programmes BT Group CTO, said the visit followed a trip that he, Stephen Furner from BT's research centre and Dave Barrett from the Retail Age and Disability Action made to Beaumont College in Lancashire earlier this year.

Said Adam: "We visited Beaumont to see how BT technology could help make life easier and richer for the residents, who have a range of disabilities."

After an initial welcome from Adam, the group saw several displays, which could help improve the lives of disabled people. Those attending included college principal Graeme Pyle and colleagues Rohan Slaughter, Sharon Collins, David Alcock, and Kate Williams.

One resident of the college, Natalie Sides, who is severely disabled, communicates with a laptop computer, which she accesses by movements of her right leg.
Added Adam: "Natalie has recently changed from using a solid state talking computer to PC based technology to improve access to information and to give her greater communications flexibility."

Stephen Furner who has been working on ways of interfacing information so that people can "feel" information demonstrated his work to Natalie and the team. By moving a pen based object until the PC thinks that it has come into contact with a shape, it enabled Natalie to trace the image of objects on the screen and feel information, giving her a new experience.

Car designers have used this technology, along with doctors and dentists as a way of reaching into information and can provide great benefits to people with dexterity issues.

The team were shown work by Mesar Hameed, a visually impaired student who has been working with Stephen to develop a "feeling" interface into the Moon language, which is an alternative to Braille.

Mark Whittle then showed them round the Home 2.0 exhibition are, which is a mock-up of a real home where broadband technology illustrates a kind of networked intelligent living space. The flexibility of the demonstration space and it's intelligent control of the surroundings showed the team how people with accessibility issues could be provided "high-tech" living spaces that enabled easy control using a range of networked technology.

They then saw the Telecare display demonstrated by Nigel Barnes, which is currently being trialed in Liverpool, where BT and the local council are helping elderly and infirm people lead more independent lives with the use of monitored movement within someone's home to give their carers a way of remotely monitoring their movement. This, along with the future developments of senser technology which will enable monitoring of more domestic appliances was of great interest to Scope who are faced with the challenge of providing sheltered accommodation without trying to be too intrusive with the care.

The highlight of the day for the BT team was a presentation by Natalie. She had pre-recorded a speech using her Wheeltop computer. Said Adam: "It was amazing to see what she could do with the technology. It was a very emotional moment which was received with applause."

"Natalie is keen to become more connected with email access and the ability to join the text messaging community. She is a Ronan Keating fan with pictures of him on her computer. The thing she loves about her laptop is that she can now play her own music when she decides to without relying on others. Our aim of working with Scope is to bring enabling technology to improve their lives."

He said afterwards that the college representatives were very impressed with the technology and the way in which these could be used to enrich the lives of their residents. Added Adam: "You can't replace human care but with this technology you can give extra reassurance and more independence to people who have very restricted movement. This is a good example of how BT is driving innovation which aims to enhance the lives of customers and organisations that choose to do business with us."