New assistive tech channel?
The big question: what do we call this channel, and what category do we sort it under?
Why is this a hard question? Check out the Humana Health by Design contest entries - they include everything from ultra low-tech tools and life hacks to construction projects and full-on techie builds.
Perhaps we need more than one channel. If so, how should we divide the Instructables? Do we need one channel for high-tech projects, and one for low-tech? I've been playing with the ideas of "assistive tech" for the high-tech/gadget-based projects to be filed under Technology, and "adaptive tools" for the low-tech/reuse projects and life-hacks to be sorted under Living. These still seem to be arbitrary distinctions, and I'm not sure they make sense.
What do you think? Please discuss in the comments, or feel free to send me your suggestions by email/PM!
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. Splitting AT between two (or more) other categories doesn't sound like a good solution to me. It seems to me that putting AT under one roof would make things easier to find. YMMV.
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. I'm guessing that a lot of "AT ppl" are DIYers out of necessity and this is just the community to help provide effective, low-cost solutions. I look forward to seeing more emphasis on AT.
Don't like it; that's really the wrong message to be sending. Assistive technology is not "reserved for" people with disabilities (like the old water fountains and bus seats).
Everybody can, and does, benefit from AT, just as we all do from the use of good universal design principles. I can use a reach-grabber any time the store puts stuff on a shelf more than 6 feet high. I can open a lever-style doorknob with my elbow when I'm carrying too many groceries. I love the fact that I can zoom the text on my Web browser and read things more easily.
Treating AT as something "special," just for "the cripples," takes us back to the days of exclusion and forced choices, rather than inclusion, access, and self-determined decisions.
No worries! Disability rights are civil rights; that's one of my soapboxes. I've been lucky enough to learn more about the history of the movement, and the appropriate terminology, since I met my wife.
Some kind of identifying label might be important (though I'm not sure the other channels have them), but using a symbol specifically identified with a group tends to drive segregation, not integration. Take a look at the icon I chose for the AT group here on I'bles for one (of many!) alternatives.
Or 5 feet. =(
Must be nice to be TALL. :p
If it's necessary for whatever reason to mark clearer boundaries, perhaps there could be additional/sub channels for the different types of disabilities addressed, i.e. navigation (getting around), vision-impaired, hearing-impaired, etc.
So:
Living
Assistive Technology
Navigation
Vision
Hearing
Actually, looking at the menu, "channels" almost seems to be another "category" to the system. Maybe the distinction is only in our heads. :D
So perhaps much the same purpose could be accomplished by just making several channels and assigning both the AT and the appropriate specific channel. Surely it's not too hard to allow assigning one more category/channel?
Living
Assistive Technology
Daily tasks
Navigation
Vision-impaired
Hearing-impaired
Cognitive assistance
General
I don't know if you want to do the subchannels thing, but it makes sense to me. :p
ARGH. Stupid editor threw away my comment again.
I am very excited that you're creating an AT channel! Thank you very much!
"Assistive technology" is the standard, accepted term in the disability community, and among disability and IL professionals. It is deliberately general and generic, covering anything from a rubber sheet to open tight jars, to a power wheelchair with puff-drive and all the bells and whistles.
Please don't try to invent something different or "better," when an accepted name already exists. Those users who aren't privy to I'ble's internal decision-making will have a much more difficult time finding what they want, if you use a non-standard terminology.
So, assistive technology fills the whole set of things I described, cool. Which category should it fit under - Technology or Living? Should we have an assistive tech channel under both? That's what we currently do with reuse, as it can apply in either category and we have LOTS of reuse projects.
How good is your database backend? In a perfect world, those would both be "const references" (ooh, too much C++ for me :-) to the collection of Instructables, which users could reach by either path.
If they end up being independent containers, you're likely to end up with thing split rather haphazardly. That's true already, to some extent, since many projects can be classified in multiple ways.
I'm tempted to put two containers out and just see what people put in them. We're working on an additional AT contest - once we get more Instructables on the subject, then we can decide how the channels are working.
If you were to just pick one category for the AT group, which would you select?
Channels will always be an approximation of a project's content, so it's probably best to aim for channels giving as much coverage of what people make as possible, rather than trying to have very precise channels that only fit one narrow type of project. Breadth before depth, I suppose.
Projects will also almost always have more than one "dimension" they could be classified under. As well as purpose, there is low-tech to high-tech, small scale to large scale, projects that are a small part of something bigger to projects that are a completely new thing.
There are probably diminishing returns to adding more and more specific channels which are best summed up by how much more suitable they are than what they replace. If adding "assistive technology" helps classify projecst that would otherwise go under "Technology -> Gadgets" or "Workshop -> Furniture" as approximate classifications, that is a definite step forwards. Moving things out of "assistive technology" into "mobility assistive tech" and "reading assistive tech" will probably only serve to give you two channels with half as many projects.
My current theory is to have an "assistive tech" channel under both Tech and Living, just like we do with other broad themes like "reuse". Thoughts?
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