Arts access for all children.

Public Law 94-142, The Education for All Handicapped Children Act, was passed in 1976 on behalf of children with disabilities. It guaranteed equal education for all persons, and mandated mainstreaming and integration of disabled individuals into regular classrooms. Hailed as a progressive and laudable piece of legislation, PL 94-142 significantly impacted educators, awareness about the needs of children with disabilities in the classroom.

A Professional Challenge

For the most part, music and visual-arts teachers were personally and professionally unprepared for the challenge of integrating the child with special needs into visual-arts and music activities. Most teachers lacked the professional training enabling them to approach, with any degree of confidence, a classroom containing students with varying kinds and degrees of disabilities--the child in a power wheelchair with quadriplegia or cerebral palsy; a hearing-impaired youngster; the child affected by fetal alcohol syndrome or other substance abuse. Today, teachers are beginning to get the tools and training that enable them to teach art and music to children with disabilities through programs like the Young Artist Workshops (YAW) at St. Norbert College.

Access through Technology

In 1985, the Young Artist Workshops began exploring new ways to meet the needs of this special population. One result is Arts Access through Assistive Computer Technology, an ongoing research project started in the program's second year. This was the first known project of its kind to explore the use of computer and augmentative communication system technology to access visual and performing arts by youth who are nonvocal, physically challenged or have multiple handicaps.

Charles Peterson, director of YAW, and Charles Frame, a speech and language pathologist and assistive technology specialist, explored the use of computer and augmentative communication system technology--typically utilized by speech and language pathologists--for students with special needs. The project was supported by grants from the NEA and IBM. The results showed that people previously denied access to the arts can pursue and enjoy art and music as a lifelong interest.

Using standard augmentative communication systems and computers typically found in schools, Arts Access developed new ways to interface with existing computer systems. The research team developed colorful keyboard overlays for input devices to coordinate with a number of popular programs such as Music Studio, PaintWorks Plus, Sesame Street Crayon, Cartooners, KidWriter Gold, Dazzle Draw and others. The Unicorn Expanded Keyboard and Adaptive Firmware Card, activated with a mouth wand, chin or forehead pointer, enables faster and more accurate computer access by persons with limited motor coordination. The keyboard may also be modified for a person with limited or no vision.

Software activated by voice, scanning or an infrared light source (LightTalker), ultrasound (HeadMaster) or by light pointers strapped to the forehead are among the adaptive equipment. The physically challenged child without the ability to lift an arm or use a finger can look at or talk to the computer screen and produce computer art or do creative writing. A user with disabilities can write, draw, paint, compose or perform music. A nonvocal child can compose, perform or sing electronically without using his or her hands.

Intensive field testing resulted in a package of keyboard overlays, interface device setups and an instruction manual. Project developments include more than twenty overlays for keyboards, enabling the user to draw, paint and sing. Also available is a videotape funded by the NEA, If You Can Move Your Head, You Can Move Your World: New Applications for Assistive Technology, and two books, Access to the Arts through Assistive Technology and New Technology/Assistive Technology and the Arts: Institute '91.

Frame and Peterson are both convinced the project's applications are unlimited. "Many disabled kids are bright. You see it in their eyes," Frame said in an article in USA Today (June 17, 1992). "But many can,t speak or write because of their impairments. Technology, much of it computer-related, lets them be creative." Researchers say that creating awareness about an individual's capability in arts and music is a primary value within the program as people with handicaps may discover gifts not previously tapped. Assistive technology empowers such people to express and experience their talents for the first time with new forms of language--the arts.

YAW began in 1985 as a summer program fostering art enrichment for students with disabilities. It has since evolved into a year-round, multifaceted program of workshops, research, publications and video resources. Educators interested in discovering the artistic possibilities for youth with disabilities are invited to contact Charles Peterson, Young Artist Workshops, St. Norbert College, 100 Grant Street, De Pere, WI 54115, [phone], fax: [phone].