DO-IT News October 2019: All Articles

Seated volleyball is another example of an accessible sport.

A basketball player goes for a layup. A soccer player spins past an opponent. Two rugby players collide, fighting for the ball. When you read these statements, do you imagine a game with players standing and running? What if I told you that I was describing adaptive sports? Would that influence how you saw the situation? Nearly one in five people in the US have a disability, yet disability sports are rarely televised and lack the prominence of their abled counterparts. If adaptive sports were featured more often, there would be a growth in acceptance for people with disabilities.

Generally defined, adaptive sports are sports that are modified to allow people with physical and sometimes mental disabilities to participate. Almost every sport, and many other athletic recreational activities, has an adaptive counterpart.

One common example is wheelchair soccer, also referred to as power soccer. It’s known as the first competitive power chair sport, and has an Official US Federation, competitive leagues, and even a World Cup. In January 2005, representatives from seven countries got together to form the International Powerchair Football Association (IPFA). Nowadays, over 250 teams compete under the IPFA banner. Power soccer is also officially listed in the Olympics. Wheelchair soccer follows most of the same rules as non-adaptive soccer. However, there are a few key differences. Power soccer is played on a basketball court with teams consisting of four players and the ball must be moved by a player’s chair, not their hands or feet. Team USA currently holds the Power Soccer World Championship.

Another popular example is wheelchair basketball. The rules of wheelchair basketball are very similar to those of non-adaptive basketball, with just a few changes around the methods for dribbling, traveling, and types of fouls. Wheelchair basketball also uses a different type of chair than people use day to day, which is designed to not fall over easily. Wheelchair basketball has a very passionate following—many Scholars in the DO-IT program have played the sport, including one of the authors of this article, Sam.

Despite the many sports available to persons with disabilities, many people do not know about them. These sports are relatively unknown outside of the disability community. Often people with disabilities can miss out on opportunities because these sports aren’t commonly in our media.

We want to make a call for action to more publicly support and acknowledge adaptive sports. Writers can feature these sports, activists and politicians can create change, and television networks can showcase games. Adaptive sports are not so different from the “norm,” so why shouldn’t they be just as featured? It will take a collective effort to surmount this issue, but perhaps, with a concerted push, we can give adaptive sports the prominence that they deserve.

If you have a disability and are interested in participating in an adaptive sport, look for local teams. In the Seattle area, check out Seattle Adaptive Sports.

During the 2019 Summer Study DO-IT program, we had the unique experience of going to the UW planetarium. When we arrived, we were escorted to a large circular room with a long bench along the outside. The room was dimly lit and set the mood for exploring outer space. Several projectors around the room projected images on the domed ceiling, displaying the entire night sky.

In the presentation, we learned about our solar system and the individual planets within it. We even went beyond our solar system, and at the end of our presentation, we zoomed out to where we could get a view of the whole known universe. The technology enabled us to zoom through the sky and make it appear as though the stars were coming towards us. We even flew through Jupiter and saw all its moons. Our presenter was an astronomy student who was very passionate and great at making astronomy more accessible to the average person. Instead of using complex scientific words that we might not understand, he clearly explained each new term and welcomed any questions we had. One of the most interesting facts that we learned was that there may be different forms of life on planets or moons that do not require water to sustain them. The presenter explained that although scientists have a vast knowledge of outer space, they are far from knowing everything. He emphasized the importance of research and the continuous study of our galaxy.

This was one of our favorite sessions. The experience zooming through the stars and planets is unlike anything we have been able to experience, even in school. The visual sensation was like flying through space, and it felt like you were really there. We all came out of the planetarium more educated and informed about intergalactic sciences. Everyone was able to learn something, it was a comfortable learning atmosphere, and the technology paired with an engaging speaker made it a mind-blowing experience.

Scholars play games and hang out together during their down time at Summer Study.

In life there is no cavalry to save you when the treatment that you receive is different from everyone else, but a targeted mentoring program just might do the trick. DO-IT Scholars strive to become truly sensitive to the navigation of their disabilities as aspiring college students, but sometimes learning how to navigate each other is the most important aspect of success—with camaraderie, so much is possible.

Being a Phase I Scholar can be stressful, lonely, and confusing when you first arrive. You’re away from home with all new people, unsure of what’s to come. For a lot of us, this is the first time being away from our families, since most summer camps and programs either can’t handle our disabilities or think we are too much of a liability. Being with people, especially people you don’t know, all day, every day, can escalate anxieties.

All the staff and Interns try to make you feel included and welcome, but we all retain some level of anxiety, especially before getting to know the other Scholars. Often large group activities and icebreakers that are meant to allow people to get to know each other can have the opposite effect those of us with anxiety. It can be helpful to introduce yourself to people and show genuine interest to learn more about them.

We interviewed Intern Emma on how she became more comfortable and got involved when coming to DO-IT Summer Study.

Q: “How did you feel as a Phase I, awkward, excited, left out?”

A: “When I was a Phase I, I was really shy. I felt out of place. But once I started to get to know everyone else, I felt better… but it was also hard being away from home for the first time for two weeks.”

Q: “What was one thing that made a difference in making you feel like part of the group at DO-IT?”

A: “On the first day, my roommate Anna got up and said, ‘let’s introduce ourselves to the group.’ She pushed me to get out there and meet the others, making sure I didn’t just sit by myself.”

Q: “Do you feel more comfortable coming back as a Phase II Scholar or an Intern?”

A: “My Intern year, because now I’ve known the people in my group for two years. However, once I figured out what DO-IT really stood for and that they were here to help us succeed, I felt like I became a part of the community.”

Q: “Do you feel like DO-IT has helped you become your best self?”

A: “Yes, because I feel more comfortable with having my disability after going through this program because everybody is the same in the fact that they are different.”

Emma’s experience really showcases how just having someone to look out for you can really help you feel like part of a community. It is also really helpful to know that everybody feels nervous their first year; some people just show it more than others.

Phase I Scholars Alexis and Risa drew some of the animals seen at the zoo.

We visited the Woodland Park Zoo on Sunday, July 21. It was very hot out. We started our adventure at the south entrance and made our way up the main loop towards the tropical rainforest exhibits.

We first came across the ring-tail lemurs. They seemed to be sleeping, until after a few minutes they began to stir, groom, and stare at us from a shaded area atop a hill. In the exhibit next door, we saw red ruffed lemurs lazily lounging in the sun on some low hanging branches over a stream.

As we continued, we visited the den of the jaguar, who was prowling about and wondering around the enclosure. We also got to see the gorilla exhibit, where we saw one of the gorillas lying asleep. When we got to the gorilla’s exhibit, we were very surprised and sad to find out that the mountain gorilla is critically endangered; there are only around 1,000 mountain gorillas left in the wild. It was cool to see one in person at the zoo.

After we were done visiting with the gorillas, we passed by the penguin exhibit by the west entrance. There were also seagulls and a great crane hanging out. At this point, we had worked up an appetite and decided to grab lunch.

We enjoyed seeing all the animals about on a “lazy” Sunday, and overall liked our trip to the Woodland Park Zoo. This was a small insight into our trip to the Woodland Park Zoo.

 

Phase II Scholars return to the UW Seattle campus for their second Summer Study. They meet the Phase I Scholars, learn about college life and career preparation, and participate in a one-week workshop with postsecondary instructors.

Anna (left) working with her mentor on analyzing the data. Photo by Marcus Donner, Center for Neurotechnology.

Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) have a promising ability to enhance our future as a society. BCIs are capable of so much, such as being able to control a robotic arm with just a person’s mind. To do this, the BCI must decode a user’s intent and then provide information back to the user, which is actually extremely difficult to accomplish.

One-way neurotechnologists at the Center for Neurotechnology (CNT) are investigating this task is through stimulating over the somatosensory cortex of the brain to provide tactile feedback to the user. This could be useful if the user wanted to know what position the robotic arm was in, or how tightly it was gripping an object, in order to adjust to accomplish a specific task. Neurotechnologists are exploring the optimal time to stimulate the brain to provide tactile feedback. Through examining data, it has been suggested that normal touch is most easily detected when the brain’s alpha waves are in part of the cycle called the “trough” phase.

I used this information in my own experiment to determine if the same was true for sensorimotor direct cortex stimulation. Just like how songs are made up of many sound waves or frequencies, neural signals are also made up of different waves, and the ones we are interested in, the alpha waves, have a frequency of between around 8 to 12 hertz.

Direct cortical stimulation was applied to the somatosensory cortex of three participants implanted with specific grids, and neural signals were recorded from the surrounding electrodes. For each experiment, a different frequency of stimulation was used over the same length of time. If the participant was able to feel something in the part of their hand mapped to where the stimulation was evoked three times in a row, the amplitude of stimulation would decrease. If they were unable to feel anything, the amplitude would increase. For each experiment, this process was done 60 times, ten of which were catch trials where no stimulation was applied.

After all the data was collected, I then created a 3-D array of the desired information, which allowed us to extract the phase of the alpha wave at the beginning of the stimulation for each trial, which we then plotted on separate polar histograms in order to see if there was any correlation between the subjects’ responses and the phase of their alpha waves.

After running the polar histograms of the alpha wave phase for yes vs no responses through a nonuniformity test, it was concluded that there were no real clusters in the data, and therefore we cannot definitively prove or disprove our hypothesis from these results. This outcome was not what we expected, since previous research has shown that perception of normal touch seems to have a dependency on the brain’s alpha waves being in the trough phase. To confirm any other conclusions we may have, more data would need to be collected. This might entail analyzing each electrode separately or separating different trials by voltage amplitude, both of which were not done in our experiment. However, this experiment brought to light many options to continue to study, bringing to light that the process may be completely different than normal tactile sensations. Further proving this new idea may help us better understand how to utilize artificial sensation to improve brain-computer interfaces in the future.

As for how this experience has influenced my future as a college freshman, it has helped me understand how interconnected the subjects of computer science and neuroscience are. This summer I learned a new coding language and analyzed neural data, both of which were extremely interesting and rewarding. I also spent time at DO-IT Summer Study, where I could live independently in a dorm. I have complete confidence that I will have no problem going to college across the country. Overall the experience was invaluable; I am now more prepared for life at college and better understand how my computer science and neuroscience are deeply intertwined.

AccessComputing Team member and recent Cornell graduate, Christopher Caulfield, has gained some attention for his thesis project about developing augmented reality (AR) software for people who are Deaf or hard of hearing (DHH).

Caulfield and another student, Devon Bain, created an application that can be used to caption one-on-one conversations using off-the-shelf AR technology. Their prototype uses computer vision and facial recognition to display captions under the speaker’s face. This helps people who are DHH maintain eye contact and makes conversations more natural than when captions are displayed on a phone or tablet. AccessComputing partner Shiri Azenkot worked with the students on this project.

This is just one example of how emerging technologies can be used for accessibility. Visit to read more about his thesis project.

During the week of May 13th, the 2019 STEM for All Video Showcase took place online, bringing together 800 presenters to share 242 short videos highlighting innovations in STEM education. The showcase had a very broad reach, including nearly 50,000 unique visitors from 158 countries.

This year, AccessComputing included a video on teaching accessibility. Viewed more than 500 times, the video covered the need for universities to teach about accessibility in computing and information courses, to prepare future software engineers to create more accessible software. The video shared some of AccessComputing’s research on barriers to teaching accessibility, which shows that many higher education computing faculty are interested in teaching about accessibility, but don’t feel they have the necessary expertise or the materials. The video also shared successful examples of integration, such as interleaving knowledge about web accessibility and screen readers in web development courses.

The discussion of the video show case was wide ranging. Many shared ideas about how to integrate accessibility into CS curricula. Some shared their personal experiences teaching about accessibility. Others discussed opportunities to teach accessibility alongside ethics and policy and the importance of integrating it in the earliest computing courses that students take.

DO-IT (Disabilities, Opportunities, Internetworking, and Technology) serves to increase the successful participation of individuals with disabilities in challenging academic programs and careers, such as those in science, engineering, mathematics, and technology. Primary funding for DO-IT is provided by the National Science Foundation, the State of Washington, and the U.S. Department of Education.

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One of the instructors helps Phase II Scholar Dylan code his project.

We assisted with the Robotics workshop, where we helped Scholars work together to create robots that would help teenagers manage stress. In this workshop, we discussed reasons for stress and ways we combat it and calm ourselves every day. After compiling information, we drafted ideas for social robots that we could use in our daily lives.

We used an interactive interface that allowed Scholars to design faces that they assumed would reduce stress and help other teenagers work through stress. The most common trait in each robot was that they played calming music that promoted the user to feel less stressed. Scholars were also able to give vital feedback to graduate students about their robot and how to make it both more appealing and accessible for students with disabilities.

We appreciate Maru’s guidance and energetic attitude during our sessions. She was able to guide Scholars and encourage them through their problems successfully. We also thank Maya for all of her behind the scene work she did to make this workshop successful.