Editorial

Citation

Abbott, C. (2012), "Editorial", Journal of Assistive Technologies, Vol. 6 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/jat.2012.55106aaa.001

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Journal of Assistive Technologies, Volume 6, Issue 1

The Journal of Assistive Technologies (JAT) enters its sixth year of publication with a general issue containing a range of articles that, in many cases, pick up issues or findings detailed in earlier pieces. We are particularly pleased to see some authors returning to JAT to update readers on the projects they have described earlier, or to tell us about their current research activities.

We begin this issue with four peer-reviewed papers that involve a range of the disciplines represented in our pages over the last five years. Our first paper is written by one of our Editorial Board, Simon Brownsell, together with Steven Blackburn and Mark Hawley, all of whom are based at the University of Sheffield in the School of Health and Related Research. They report on an innovative use of digital interactive television within a supported care service and describe how the Virtex system was developed through participatory design principles, and through a literature review, postal survey and focus groups. The digital interactive television prototype was then tested with the same groups. User requirements for the Virtex are summarised according to five key themes: information access; communication; self-care; accessibility and personalisation. The team also discuss the use of a prototype at an early stage of such a project.

Our second peer-reviewed paper comes from Finland, and is written by Antti Konttila, Marja Harjumaa, Salla Muuraiskangas, Mikko Jokela and Minna Isomursu from the VTT Research Centre in Oulu and ToP Tunniste in Tampere. The paper describes an innovative use of voice tagging of physical objects. The system described is contactless and operates through a mobile phone, enabling visually impaired people to identify objects and understand them. It was also possible for users to tag items with their own particular voice messages, and this was found to be useful by some participants. The technology in use was near field communication (NFC), and the application was tested by ten users. Once again, users were involved in the design. The application was found to be particularly useful for identifying food items and clothes, as well as toiletries that come in similar containers and items that are identical to touch but come in different colours. This is likely to be an area that sees rapid development over the next few years, and we look forward to other papers on the use of voice tagging and mobile technology.

We turn next to a paper by colleagues from the USA and Israel. Orly Lahav from the School of Education, Tel Aviv University and colleagues David Schloerb, Siddarth Kumar and Mandayam Srinivasan from the Laboratory for Human and Machine Haptics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) describe a usability study of a virtual environment for blind people. The focus here is on anticipatory exploration: the use of virtual reality to provide preparatory perceptual and conceptual information about an environment. Working with blind users, the researchers explored the use of haptic and audio tools as well as cognitive mapping. Among their findings are the importance of keeping information simple, the need to provide links from the real space to the virtual one, and the extent of user configuration available. The team also explain the next stage of their research, when the context will include real spaces as well as virtual ones.

Our final peer-reviewed paper in this issue takes us back to the UK. Warren Oldreive is a Speech and Language Therapist and he writes with colleagues Neil Moore and Mary Waight, all based at Bracknell Community Team for People with Learning Disabilities (CTPLD) in Berkshire. The team provide a case study of the use of technology to support an individual service user and to enable him to develop reasoning skills and make decisions, as a response to his referral to the team for support in these areas. It was decided that the most helpful support for the service user would be technology-based and using a range of current software tools.

We also include in this issue a varied group of shorter articles. We begin with Lloyd Mead’s account of his work with further education students with learning disabilities or difficulties at Lambeth College in South London. In this paper, he describes the use of interactive whiteboards to engage and motivate teenaged learners. Phil Palmer from the West Midlands Rehabilitation Centre and Jill Jepson from the University of East Anglia then contribute an article from a speech and language therapy perspective, focusing on the search for an appropriate outcome measure for evaluating the use of environmental control systems. The development by the team of a modified version of a current tool, in collaboration with the originators of that measure, is now to be the focus of the next phase of research.

Jon Perry, also a member of the JAT Editorial Board, and his colleague Steve Beyer, both from the Welsh Centre for Learning Disabilities at Cardiff University, address the important ethical issues around telecare, looking particularly at the views of people with intellectual disabilities and those living with dementia. JAT is particularly interested in receiving submissions on the topic of the ethics of assistive technologies and the involvement of participants. This paper, involving as it does some important work with focus groups, raises some key issues that can be taken further by future articles. The final contribution in this issue is from Nada Savitch, Deborah Brooks and Stephen Wey from Trent Dementia Services Development Centre and Innovations in Dementia. The authors describe the further development of the AT Dementia web site, previously reviewed in JAT 3.3.

Our Reviews Editor also brings us news of a web site that offers a range of access options for YouTube. We are pleased to review relevant books and web sites in JAT; let us know about resources that should be covered in future issues. This issue also has a contribution from hft.

We are grateful to our Editorial Board members, not just for their support and encouragement of the journal, but for their regular response to articles submitted for peer review. They do this willingly, with care and to great effect; but the number of papers submitted to JAT is increasing all the time, and we now need to increase our panel of occasional reviewers. If you would like to join this team – an excellent way of sharpening your own writing skills and sharing in the aims of the journal – please contact me (chris.abbott@kcl.ac.uk) and let me know your particular areas of expertise and interest. I look forward to hearing from you.

Chris Abbott