CSUN’s training pros to demystify technology that can help the disabled

Louis Herrera’s fingers fly over his Braille Sense, a two lb. device with the functionality of a laptop computer, a menu structure similar to Microsoft Windows, a built-in Bluetooth, wireless Internet, a global positioning system, built-in flash memory and an MP3 player.

Herrera’s mind is flying as fast as his fingers, sizing up what the machine can do, how fast it is, how serviceable. What he learns will be put to good use. Herrera, who worked for many years as a computer engineer at Litton Industries, is among the first 13 students in a pioneering master of science degree program at Cal State Northridge, one that will introduce something new into the workforce: a wave of biomedical engineers and human service professionals who can help aging baby boomers use the sometimes complicated assistive technology more and more of them need.

The Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that, by 2018, the U.S. will have experienced a 72 percent jump in employment for biomedical engineers. At the same time, the country’s baby boomers are aging, and their need for assistive technology is growing.

Herrera, blind since he was three, will be one who helps fill the need. As part of the CSUN degree program—offered jointly by the College of Engineering and Computer Science, the College of Health and Human Development and the Tseng College—he represents the kind of student the program hopes to attract: mid-career professionals with a keen interest in understanding and working with the new assistive technologies, all the way from concept and design to use and instruction.

“We need professionals who understand the culture of disability,” said Mary Ann Cummins Prager, associate vice president for Student Affairs and former director of the Center on Disabilities. “The biggest hurdle in assistive technology is user abandonment. Devices are so cumbersome or complicated that people end up not using them.”

More than 60 Northridge faculty, including some from the university’s nationally acclaimed Center on Disabilities, “worked across disciplines and with input from industry colleagues” to design two master degree programs, the Master of Science in Assistive Technology Studies and Human Services (ATHS) and the Master of Science in Assistive and Rehabilitative Technology (ATR), said S.K. Ramesh, dean of the College of Engineering and Computer Science.

Kinesiology professor Vicky Jaque, ATHS academic director in the College of Health and Human Development and the mother of a child with disabilities, noted the crucial need for professional help in using assistive technology across the age spectrum.

“Many people don’t understand the use of assistive technology in children,” said Jaque. “As the mother of a special needs child, I can tell you that expert help is critical. There are many diseases that you can’t cure, but with the help of assistive devices, they can be made more manageable.”

Jaque said the chronic conditions that cause disabilities are isolating because, outside of the medical community, not many people understand them. “The culture of disability is poorly understood, especially behavioral issues and daily challenges. We believe this is the first such degree program in the country; it’s a profound thing.”

Andrew Bowker ’09 (Engineering and Computer Science), a process engineer at 3M, is excited to be among CSUN’s first professionals to address the needs pointed out by Jaque. “There is lots of opportunity in medical device engineering,” he said. “I was drawn to the [CSUN] program because it focuses on going from a need to a concept to the creation of a useful device.”

Stephanie Rood ‘93 (Child Development and Liberal Studies) believes the goal of the ATHS program is to help people be successful regardless of their disability. Sight-impaired like classmate Herrera, Rood teaches assistive technology to blind adults at the Junior Blind of America.

Program designers divided the curriculum into two tracks, with some students concentrating on human services and others on engineering. “I love that the programs are ‘married,’ so to speak,” said Jennifer Kalfsbeek, senior program director in the Tseng College, “with human services people in the assistive technology field benefiting from the knowledge of engineers and vice-versa.”

The hands-on nature of the program also will give students in its engineering track the chance at internships with off-campus employers or with on-campus organizations like the Center on Disabilities. This unique program enables engineers to design assistive technology devices including the important perspectives of the end user. The ATR track is coordinated by professor C.T. Lin in the College of Engineering and Computer Science.

“People want and expect a better quality of life, which can be made possible with the right devices,” said Cummins Prager. Pacemakers, motorized wheelchairs and voice recognitions systems have paved the way, she said, but the potential is waiting to be tapped.

For more information on the program, visit http://tsengcollege.csun.edu/aths/aths.html and http://tsengcollege.csun.edu/atr/atr.html

— Julia Venkateswaran

---