Customizing conventional computer peripherals in the benefit of low income individuals with disabilities: Step by step procedures to make by yourself

Abstract

Aware of the gap that exists between the social rights protected by laws and its full enjoyment, a multidisciplinar team composed of engineers, educators and brazilians students, joined to develop assistive technology products that contribute to the inclusion of people with disabilities, especially those low-income people. This paper presents a successful experience of this team on the development of valuable technology assistive products with low-tech. Construction procedures that describe how to transform conventional computer peripherals such as mouses and keyboards in custom devices for people with physical disabilities will be presented in details. These procedures were conceived in order to design functional, durable and low-cost products. The group uses the Internet in order to publicly disseminate their knowledges and projects.