ABSTRACT
This essentially means “usable by individuals including their personal assistive technologies.”
Interestingly, it may be possible in the future for individuals to have personal assistive technologies which they do not actually carry on their person. We are rapidly approaching a time when it is practical to have AT that resides “in the ether,” and that could be pulled down and be used whenever and wherever an individual needed them. This is already true for some Internetbased interactions. People with disabilities can use the Internet to invoke “virtual” assistive technologies from any location on the Internet. This “virtual AT” capability is incomplete today, however, because when using the Internet from a library or other public place, users generally must first be able to use the (Library’s) terminal before they can invoke or call up Internetbased AT services. There are also some locations where full Internet access may not be available and the AT service cannot be reached, or where rerouting of Internet content through the virtual AT or downloading of the virtual AT may not be permitted. For this “virtual personal assistive technology” model to be fully effective, a means to automatically fetch and install the virtual AT software must be provided as the person approaches the device, and the devices need to be designed to allow users to substitute their alternate interface or interface modification in place of or as a part of the standard interface on the product. Such virtual AT would be considered P-AT because users would have it with them or available to them whenever they encountered the products with which they needed to use it.
