By Chauncy N. Rucker
In the early Assistive Technology years I had an Adaptive Firmware Card (AFC) and a Unicorn Board. I often used the two together to demonstrate how these devices could be a significant improvement for those who used switches to access an Apple computer.
Several people I interviewed for the Assistive Technology Oral History (ATOH) Project, particularly mentioned the value of the AFC. It occurred to me that I needed to interview the inventors of the AFC, Paul Schwejda and Judy McDonald. With help from Don Johnston’s son Ben Johnston, I learned the Paul Schwejda/Judy McDonald phone number. I was finally able to reach Judy by phone in 2009 regarding a video interview, but circumstances kept it from happening.
By 2011 Judy, Paul and I were able to make interview plans, but they had a suggestion. In 1980-1983, Paul and Judy were involved in a project that offered training and a portable Morse-code-based communication device to a small group of young people, who, due to significant cerebral palsy, could not communicate by speaking. Judy and Paul have stayed in touch with three of the study participants, now in their early forties, to this day.
Both Paul and Judy agreed to an interview for the ATOH Project, but they suggested that in addition to their interview, I should also meet with Steve Harper and Tania Finlayson for interviews while I was in Seattle. A third Morse code participant, Kristin Rytter, had obtained her Ph.D. in psychology in 2006 and had recently taken a position in the Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences at the University of New Mexico, so I would not be able to interview her.
I had plans to be in California in November of 2011 so it was easy for me to fly up to Seattle for two days for the interviews. Paul and Judy facilitated the weekend by traveling to Seattle from their Oregon home and making appointments and arrangements.
I arrived in Seattle early Saturday morning, November 26th and met Paul and Judy at a hotel where the three of us were staying. That morning I set up a camcorder in their hotel room and had a very pleasant time listening to their fruitful early years, how they met, the Morse code project, the three participants in the Morse code project and much much more. This interview which is a very important addition to the ATOH Project will be located on that website. There will be a description of their work and two video snippets. In addition one will be able to download the entire transcript of the interview from the site http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xu40fnC94Hk&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL
I thought that we were going to video the two participants from the Morse code project at the hotel. However, Paul and Judy indicated that it would be better to interview Steve later that day at this home in Seattle and interview Tania in her home Sunday.
Steve is about 43 years of age and is a computer whiz and webmaster for two major assistive technology companies. For communication and computer input, he relies entirely on his Morse code skills gained from the Morse code project. He has a Mac laptop computer and a PC desktop computer. He has them set up so that he can work with ease on either of the computers. He also told me that he was a very strong supporter of a Morse code device, the TandemMaster, invented by his good friend Tania Finlayson. You can see the TandemMaster and his computers in his video snippet.
Off we went to Steve’s house and set up the camcorder for the interview. I had sent Steve and Tania a list of the questions I would be asking them. I thought this would be helpful because they could put together their answers ahead of time so that answering the questions would just mean bringing up the answers. However, Steve had a different idea. He wanted to be sure to show the people that viewed his video how quickly he could type answers using the Morse code he has been using for about 30 years. I didn’t think that was a great idea, but Steve is very good at Morse code and he didn’t want to do it any other way.
The interview with Steve presented a few problems. We were in a small space and there were four of us trying to help as much as possible. Unfortunately, the electrical cord for the camcorder was in our way. We lost quite a bit of video because the electrical plug kept falling out of the socket. Because of the size of the space and the fact that there were so many of us, a wheelchair, and two computers, the video filming was difficult.
I said earlier what a computer geek Steve is. He proved that to be true several times after the video interview. Just a couple of days after I got home from Seattle I learned that Steve had a copy of his video and had put it up on YouTube with captioning. Captioning was a major problem for me. I did a lot of it a few months ago, but YouTube changed their format and since then I haven’t been able to successfully add captioning to video snippets. I’m working on it, but I may well need to have Steve help me to overcome the problems I’m having. He also put his video on his website and on his Facebook site.
The bottom line was that my video work with Steve was not very good. Fortunately Paul and I came up with a novel solution. I had brought along a second video camera, tripod, and the camcorder book just in case. I explained some of the issues involved in using the camcorder and left a videotape and the camcorder and tripod with Paul. Paul agreed to redo the video later with Steve. Paul did a much better job with that second video!
The next day I was off to Tania Finlayson’s home with Paul and Judy. We had lots of space and we began by talking about how to do the video work. Tania has severe cerebral palsy and began using Morse code in the University of Washington study when she was 10 years old. Tania decided it made sense for her to compose the answers to all of the questions before I showed up at her home. She wrote comprehensive answers with Morse code using the TandemMaster she invented. This device is about the size of a deck of cards and can be plugged into a PC or a Mac. The user can then use Morse code and the device will produce speech. With her computer setup there was a screen on the front of her wheelchair so that someone watching that could see and hear what she was saying via Morse code.
These two intelligent individuals are clearly very capable. It was a real joy to meet them and work with them. We will continue to communicate through email I’m sure.
I’m happy to report that as of January fifth, I’m able to add captioning to videos again, thanks to a very bright woman at the University of Connecticut and a helpful suggestion from Steve.
See Steve and Tania’s video snippets below.
Steve Harper
Snippet: “Here is your chance to show us your skill with Morse code.” (9:26)
Tania Finlandia Part 1
Snippet 1: “Please tell us a little bit about how you learned Morse code and how it has helped in terms of your communication.” (9:51)
Tania Finlandia Part 2
Snippet 2: “How did you come up with the TandemMaster?” (4:39)
