Tech's Center for Assistive Technology and Environmental Access fabricated a supine workstation that allowed Fletcher to work at home in a reclining position, his computer screen and keyboard suspended above him.

CATEA is a multidisciplinary center within the School of Architecture and the home of two rehabilitation engineering research centers funded by the National Institute for Disability and Rehabilitation Research.

Work RERC, the workplace accommodations research center, promotes universally designed technologies to advance the independence of people with disabilities in the workplace.

Wheeled RERC, the wheeled mobility center, conducts research to promote independence of people with disabilities who use wheelchairs or other mobility aids.

A third research center, Mobile Wireless, known as wireless RERC, is housed at Tech's Georgia Centers for Advanced Telecommunications Technology. It is a five-year program also funded by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research to ensure equitable access to all wireless technologies regardless of a person's disabilities.

"We monitor trends in wireless technology as well as maintain a close relationship to the wireless industry in order to gain access to these emerging technologies," director Helena Mitchell says.

Some of those projects include wear able captioning devices for the hearing impaired, mobile wireless communication devices and mobile accessibility guides.

A deaf person could use the wear able captioning device to receive text streams from transmitting stations and produce a written translation of lectures, announcements or movie dialogue on a PDA worn around the neck. A sight-impaired pedestrian could rely on a mobile accessibility guide to warn of impending obstacles.

"The mobile accessibility guide can warn the user of changes in accessibility ahead," research director Ed Price, EE 91, says. "If someone is walking along Peachtree and there is a closed section of sidewalk, the guide will automatically alert the user of the problem."

While GCATT focuses on wireless mobility, the assistive technology center identifies the everyday needs of persons with disabilities and works with the private business sector to develop products to assist them.

Unholy sounds emanate from the old 10th Street Baptist Church sanctuary, now the CATEA offices. In the testing lab, a cacophony of whooshes and wheezes accompany the rise and fall of plastic forms — shaped like human derrieres — that are being continually flattened, then released by a machine testing commercial wheelchair cushions to determine which ones create the least number of pressure sores, a common problem among people who use wheelchairs.

In another project, a dynamic seating system for wheelchairs is being developed for children who experience uncontrolled spasms, a common symptom of neuromuscular diseases such as dystonia or cerebral palsy.

Stephen Sprigle, director of CATEA and coordinator of the Mobility Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center, says they are trying to develop a chair that can absorb the energy from the spasms while maintaining a safer and more functional posture. After suffering several spasms in a regular wheelchair, a child may end up in a very awkward slouch, but a flexible seating system could keep him in a seated position, avoiding discomfort and the need to be repositioned by caregivers.

"We are trying to change the way wheeled mobility is understood," Sprigle says. "We're trying to design assistive devices for everyday life."

©2004 Georgia Tech Alumni Association