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DO-IT NEWS -- JUNE ISSUE

DO-IT (Disabilities, Opportunities, Internetworking and Technology)
is a program designed to recruit and retain high school students
with disabilities into science, engineering and mathematics.
Primary funding is provided by the National Science Foundation.

DO-IT NEWS  is published at the University of Washington with
input from the staff, scholars and mentors of DO-IT. The College of
Engineering and Computing and Communications coordinate the
program. It is primarily funded by a grant from the National
Science Foundation.

        Publisher -- Sheryl Burgstahler
        Editor -- Serena Shubert

To request more information, a free subscription or alternative
formats of this newsletter (Braille, large print, electronic or
tape) or to submit an article, contact DO-IT, University of
Washington, JE 25 (Room 206),  Seattle, WA 98195;

Send electronic mail to doit@u.washington.edu; or call (206)
685-doit (voice/TDD) .

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

DO-IT mentor Ed Pottharst details his visit to Russia and Rachel
Allen tells all about a tour of Battelle Labs. For those stories,
an award-winning essay by Randy Hammer's, and more, read on.

DIRECTOR'S DIGRESSIONS
By Sheryl Burgstahler

This has been a busy spring for DO-IT Scholars.  Rachel Allen and
Katie Bonner arranged a tour of Battelle Pacific Northwest
Laboratory in Richland.  Several of the old- timer DO-IT Scholars
and two of the new recruits attended along with staff member Dan
Comden. Rachel's entertaining report of her experiences is in this
issue.

DO-IT Scholar Randy Hammer won runner-up in an essay competition 
with his insightful piece on using the Internet. The national
contest was sponsored by the National Center for Education
Statistics, the NASA K-12 Internet Project, and the National
Science Foundation.  Randy's prize-winning story in the grade 10-12
category is also reproduced in this issue.

Congratulations also go to DO-IT Scholar Anna Schneider. Anna won
a prestigious NASA Space Grant Scholarship to the University of
Washington. The award covers four years tuition, two years room and
board and half room and board plus a part-time job to cover the
second two years.

We can also congratulate Rachel Allen for securing a full-summer
paid internship at Battelle Laboratories.  Way to go Rachel!

The DO-IT Advisory Board Members have spent the last few months
reviewing applications for the new DO-IT Scholars. Narrowing the
field has not been easy, but the task is done. Adaptive Technology
Specialist Dan Comden has begun the job of designing and installing
the individualized computer systems that DO-IT Scholars use as
participants in this program. Soon, the new group of Scholars will
have the opportunities so well described by Rachel and Randy in
this issue.

Another successful Computer Fair has been planned and was
presented on March 17-18. The DO-IT booth was especially
well-received. Special marks go to Scholars Nhi Duong, Mitch
Weddle, Randy Hammer, Rodney Lewis, Anna Schneider and several
Mentors for helping out in the booth. Randy, Mitch and Mentor Kevin
Berg also joined me and Dr. Ray Bowen in a DO-IT presentation that
was well attended.

DO-IT was also well represented at the annual Engineering Open
House where our new videos were a popular attraction. Scholars
Rodney Lewis and Katie Bonner and Mentor Susan Valdez were
especially helpful at our information table.

Dan, Anna and I were guests on the Evergreen Radio Reading Service
live talk show. Two mentors, Frank Cuta and Eric Ho, called in
with questions and comments. Anna also demonstrated technology at
North Seattle Community College.
      
Career Mentor Dr. Elizabeth Thompson and post-secondary Mentor
Kevin Berg joined me in a panel discussion of DO-IT at a technology
conference in Bellevue.

I have given presentations about DO-IT, adaptive technologies and
the Internet at a Cooperative Education Association Conference in
Florida and a Northwest Cooperative Education Association
Conference in Washington.

Dan and I gave a presentation at an adaptive technology conference
at California State University - Northridge.  In addition, Dan
demonstrated equipment at the Spinal Cord Institute in Seattle.
DO-IT staff, mentors and others delivered a one day workshop to
students with disabilities and their parents in April.

On another note, congratulations to Nikki (DO-IT staff) and Rod
Stauber on the birth of their daughter, Alita Rai.

WRITE ON, RANDY
By DO-IT Scholar Randy Hammer

Randy's essay won runner up in a national contest sponsored by the
National Center for Education Statistics, the NASA K-12 Internet
project and the National Science Foundation.

My name is Randy Hammer, and I am a junior at Timberline High
School in Lacey Washington. I am totally blind; with two glass
eyes. I have been blind all my life, and have never known anything
different. I have been mainstreamed in schools all my life, and
have always had to depend on others to get me school materials. If
I needed or wanted a book for class, it had to be transcribed into
braille or put on tape. However, in August of last year a whole new
door was opened to me. I am a member of the DO-IT (Disabilities,
Opportunities, Internetworking, Technology) Program at the
University of Washington. This program is funded greatly
by the National Science Foundation. It gives high school students
with disabilities the chance to overcome their challenges by the
use of the Internet.
       
Getting Internet access was the best thing that ever happened to
me. In a way, my computer and access to the net has become my eyes
to the world. I can read a newspaper, talk to people around the
world, and get materials for class papers, unlike before when I had
to depend on others to get the resources I needed.

Upon receiving my access in August of 1993, I was able to read a
newspaper for the first time in my life. This may sound trivial but
to me it was a great accomplishment.  I was not aware of the
variety of topics covered by newspapers. I knew about the front
page, feature articles, and sports section, for instance, but I did
not know of the huge amount of stories in these sections. I was
amazed. Before getting access I had to get sighted people to read
me the paper. However, with the help of a screen reader and a host
at the University of Washington called UWIN (University of
Washington Information Navigator), I browsed through the
paper, found just what I wanted to read, and read it. I can even
mail myself the articles and save them; somewhat like how you cut
articles that you like out of the paper to save for future
reference. This was amazing to me. And not only can I read the
Washington Post, but also the Moscow News, and several other papers
mainly used by scientists. So, the net has helped me get in better
contact with the world via online newspapers.

Many of you know of IRC or some other type of chat systems. This
caught my by surprise when I first started on the net. I am taking
German in high school, and plan to be a foreign language expert. If
I want to try out my German on people, I just telnet to Germany,
and try it on actual Germans (who are really strict teachers, and
who catch every mistake you make. I know, I have made many.)
Another aspect of the chat systems is talking to people about
current events. I can telnet to a chat system and talk to people
from California about the earthquakes there, or from Kansas City
and ask about the Chiefs chances in the Superbowl. Thus, the net is
a tool for me to get feedback from people all over the world on
what they think of different things, and it's an interesting way to
make new friends.
     
But the best aspect of the net is the ability to get information on
any topic. There are lots of ways to do this. First, you can join
a listserv and find out about a topic from experts. Though I
haven't joined a listserv yet, I may do so in the near future.
Second, you can e-mail an expert in a field with a question and get
an answer to your question quickly. But the best way to get
materials is through Gopher Space. I recently needed information on
Poland. I entered Gopher Space, moved to a server in Poland itself,
and there I found all the information I needed on my subject. Also,
there are encyclopedias, dictionaries, and thesauruses in the
Gopher Space. If a server does not have the information you need,
you can just find another that will either have the exact material,
or one that has some sort of information book and use it to get the
information that you need.

In closing, the Internet has become a great part of my life. In the
seven months that I have had access to the net, I have built up
over two hundred hours on it. I use it to find out about current
events, do research papers for school, and just talk to people
about everyday life. I would recommend the Internet to anyone that
needs these services. It is hard now to remember how I lived
without this wealth of materials and information at my fingertips.


DOING VIRTUALLY NOTHING
or, How Not To Treat Your HIT Lab Job

By DO-IT Scholar Rodney J. Lewis

It was a warm September evening when I made my way to the
University of Washington's HIT Lab at Fluke Hall.  I had a meeting
with one of the project's directors, Dr. Tom Furness.  I was
seeking employment there on a sort of Work from Home basis, perhaps
writing things and then later programming "virtual worlds" for use
with their hardware.

The interview was interesting, and I explained my abilities and
interests with Dr. Furness.  My first assignment was to write an
article which was to be more of a review of my experiences during
the Summer at the HIT Lab.  For those of you who may not know, as
part of the DO-IT Summer Program, all sixteen of us were invited to
the HIT Lab to experience the primitive, however quickly
developing, technology.

Those of us who were sighted got to be taken on tours of small and
simplistic universes, and those of us who were visually impaired
got to experience virtual sound source positions.  That is, a pair
of earphones were worn and sound came through them as if it was
coming from above or below.  What made this even more notable is
that if you turned your head the sound would stay in the same spot.

I was given the mission of writing a review of my experiences.  The
following are a few excerpts from my article to illustrate further
my impressions, but mostly just to take up space: "Overall, I left
Fluke Hall ... with the feeling that this had all the elements to
a classic upstart of a new and promising technology..." The
difference between my flight simulator and virtual reality is that
when I'm doing the old reliable Gates Learjet cruise from Chicago
to Seattle, and during the flight I turn my head to the left, I see
the clutter of books on my table, the back side of my radio, and in
the distance I can see my closet with all my clothes.  When I turn
my head to the right I am facing a wall and I can see this poem I
had tacked to it that I've never bothered to read, the naked
5-month-old on my Nirvana poster, and my phone--in the distance I
see nothing, because, alas, my x-ray eyeglasses are missing. 
However, in the virtual world so graciously demonstrated that
evening by the HIT Lab, if I turned my head to the left I saw the
wall of the room that  I was "virtually" in.  There were a few
floating animals in this room, and there were--if my memory
serves me correctly--a few plants on the ground one might find in
a fish tank.  And if I turned my head to the right I could possibly
see that elusive fish I was supposed to catch swimming away. This
is the magic I see in virtual reality.

And now getting down to an explanation of the title of this
article, well, the piece I was assigned to do for the HIT Lab
Review is pretty much all I've done thus far.  The moral of the
story is, when you go all the way up to Seattle for an interview
with someone who can give you a good opportunity, and they do, try
accomplishing more than a short little write-up...

FISH, ROBOTS AND FUN
By DO-IT Scholar Rachel Allen

The Battelle tour was great!  I really enjoyed it, and I think
everyone else did too!  It was lots of fun and we all learned a
bunch of interesting stuff at the same time.  Now, everything was
really good and presented very well, but I think I can speak for
everybody when I say that I really had fun playing in the Robotics
Lab and the Fisheries Biology Lab.

The Robotics Lab was a bundle of fun!  It got pretty interesting
when Anna Schneider got her hands on the Low Signature Vehicle demo
remote control! Dan never knew how much rough terrain his leg of
the tour entailed until then.  Robotics also had a Fog Camera demo. 
We were shown how fliers see through fog. Another thing in Robotics
was a Robotic Arm. This arm is used to handle nuclear warheads. 
That was cool!

The other main highlight of the tour was the Biology Fisheries lab. 
Some interesting words to describe the lab would probably be wet
and slimy!  It was lots of fun.  We all got the opportunity to feed
and pet and hold some of the sea life.  The lab was just a splash
of fun!

JOURNEY TO RUSSIA
By DO-IT Mentor Ed Pottharst

The riotously colored onion-shaped domes of St. Basil's Cathedral
in Moscow...an immense bronze statue of Lenin gazing sternly out
over thousands of young Russians dancing to rap music...smiles
bursting out on the faces of deaf children as we visited their
classrooms.  These are three memories I cherish from my two-week
trip to Russia in September 1993.

I traveled with a delegation of 54 educators, audiologists,
psychologists, hearing instrument specialists, and adults who are
hearing impaired.  The purpose of the trip, sponsored by the
Spokane-based Citizen Ambassador Program of People to People, was
to give our delegates a look at education of children with hearing
impairments in Moscow, Stavropol, and St. Petersburg.  The trip
also gave us an opportunity to share American education methods of
teaching deaf children.

We learned that the challenges faced by Russian educators of the
deaf are daunting.  There is a general lack of good amplification
for most students.  Hearing aids are scarce and costly.  Trained
teachers are in short supply.  Mainstreaming as we know it is a
rarely used option. 

Nonetheless, Russian teachers of the deaf are highly dedicated. The
hearing-impaired children we saw look just like American school
children:  bright, warm, cheerful.  Deaf Russian teens and young
adults are ambitious.  They are eager to take advantage of the
technology available elsewhere (e.g., TTYs, telephone relay
services).

The Russians we met, from educators to tour bus guides and drivers,
were brimming with pride and optimism about the recent momentous
changes in their country.  They were worried, too, about the
difficulties that have accompanied these political and economic
changes.  But they expressed confidence that the changes are
irreversible.  They shared with us their dreams for themselves,
their children, and their country.

My trip inspired me.  It also made me more appreciative of the
opportunities that people with disabilities have in our country. 
I hope that we can have more exchanges of this kind.  This way,
people with disabilities all over the world will have the best
opportunity to live happy and productive lives.

DO-IT DOES TELECONFERENCING

On May 10, Dr. Ray Bowen (Dean, UW College of Engineering) and Dr.
Sheryl Burgstahler (DO-IT Director) participated in a panel that 
was telecast to colleges and universities across the country as
part of the teleconference series "Engineering Faculty Forum."

The panel also included Dr. Lawrence Scadden, Senior Program
Director of the National Science Foundation Program for Persons
with Disabilities; Peter Axelson, President of Beneficial Design,
Inc.; and Marilyn Berman, Associate Dean of Engineering at the
University of Maryland. 

The broadcast, sponsored by the Department of Energy, addressed
issues concerning the impact of legislation and technology on
education and careers in engineering to students with disabilities;
assistive technology and accommodations in the classroom, lab and
worksite; recruitment and retention of undergraduate students with
disabilities; and the value of diversity in the engineering
workforce.

DO-IT THIS SUMMER

Fifteen DO-IT Phase II Scholars from last summer will return to
the University of Washington campus for a one-week summer program
scheduled for August 14-19.  These old-timers will join the Phase
I (First year) Scholars who will arrive for their program August 7. 
As an added bonus, a few of the Phase II Scholars will attend the
first week of the Phase I program as assistants.

When these helpers share their experiences about last year's summer
program, the new Scholars will be educated as well as entertained.
Newcomers are sure to learn about the best hiding places for shoes
or where to find pizzas or lattes. They will discover how Italian
sodas demonstrate the layering in estuaries, and they will learn
how to cruise the Internet.

Some summer activities are open to the public and volunteers are
being recruited to help with the program. Call or write the DO-IT
office for information.

TECHNOLOGY TIPS
By Dan Comden

Transferring files between home and hawking

A few people have asked for instructions on transferring documents
created in Word to their accounts on hawking.

Overview

If you have a document you've created on your home machine that
you want to mail to someone, you need to convert it to text, upload
to your hawking account, and then import it into the mail message
your are sending. If you wish to retain the formatting (bold,
underlining, different fonts, etc.) you only need to upload the
file and send it as an attachment to your electronic mail message.

Procedure for Sending a Document as the Text of a Mail Message

1. While in your Word Processor (Word, for most of you), load the
document you wish to transfer.

2. From the File menu, choose Save As. This should bring up the
Save Dialog Box.

3. Choose Text Only. You should change the filename so you don't
overwrite your original document. Adding ".txt" to the end of the
file name is a standard method of naming text files. NOTE: if you
are using a Macintosh, make sure that there are no spaces in the
filename!

4. Click on Save to save the Document. Make note of the directory
or folder in which the file is saved. For this example, we'll say
the file is named BLEGGA.TXT and is in the \WINWORD directory on a
PC.

5. Quit your word processor and start your communication software
(Zterm for the Mac users, Telix or Commo for PC users).

6. Log in to hawking by your normal method. Don't start Pine yet!

7a. Zterm Users (Mac): In the File menu, choose Send Zmodem
(command-S). This brings up a dialog box where you can change
folders and select the file to upload. When a file has been
selected, click on the Add button, and then on the Start button to
begin the transfer. Hawking should recognize that a file is being
sent and begin to receive it.

7b. Telix Users (PC): Hit Alt-S and select the Zmodem protocol from
the popup box. Next, enter the path and file name of the document
you wish to transfer (e.g. \WINWORD\ BLEGGA.TXT) and hit return.
Hawking should recognize that a file is being sent and begin to
receive it.

8. After the file has been received, start up Pine. Get into
Compose Message mode, and when your cursor is in the body of your
message, hit Ctrl-R (for Read File). Enter the file name (e.g.
"blegga.txt") and hit return. That's all there is to it!

Procedure for Sending a Document as an Attachment

Begin with Step 5 and work your way through the remainder of the
steps. NOTE: MacUsers: it is very important that the file name has
no spaces!

For Step 8, instead of reading the file into the body of your mail
message, you can use the attach feature of Pine to send your
document:

8. After the file has been correctly received, go ahead and start
Pine. While in Compose Message mode, move the cursor to the
Attchmnt: line, and hit Ctrl-J. When prompted for the file name,
enter it here. You don't need to send an attachment comment, unless
you wish to indicate the original format of the document (Mac vs.
PC, word processor format, etc.) but you can do this just as well
in the body of your message.


CONGRATULATIONS GRADUATES

Four DO-IT Scholars are soon to graduate from high school:

        * Anna Schneider
        * Lloyd Gibson
        * Rodney Lewis
        * Mitch Weddle

All are planning to pursue a higher education, but all final
decisions about where they'll enroll have not been made.  DO-IT
staff, of course, want them all to come to the U-Dub!

DO-IT HELPS WITH THE TRANSITION TO COLLEGE

More than thirty pre-college students with disabilities, parents,
teachers and service providers attended a full-day workshop
sponsored by DO-IT at the University of Washington. Topics covered
in "Making the Transition to College" included transition
strategies, college entrance requirements, campus services and
resources, financial strategies and computer and network use.

DO-IT staff Dr. Sheryl Burgstahler and Dan Comden gave
presentations on DO-IT activities, computers, adaptive technology
and the Internet. Special speakers included Kathy Cook of Disabled
Student Services, Dr. Kurt Johnson of UW Rehabilitative Medicine
and Martha Hansen of the College of Education. Participants were
invited to tour the UW Adaptive Technology Lab.

The highlight of the day was a panel featuring DO-IT mentors who
shared their personal experiences attending colleges and
universities as disabled students. Martha Hansen talked about
issues for students with mobility impairments, French Ledger shared
his experiences as a student with a learning disability,  Dean
Martineau shared ideas to help blind students to have a successful
college experience, and  Dr. Ephraim Glinert told of college
experiences as a student with low vision. Participants appreciated
the willingness of these panelists to share personal experiences
and give practical advice to potential students.

Responses to the program were positive. Plans are underway to
repeat the program next year.

DO-IT DOES VIDEOS

DO-IT has created two dynamic videos. In "DO-IT Scholars," the
summer '93 participants are the stars.  Nhi Duong voices the
concerns of many when she expressed her initial fears about staying
at the University for two weeks, "The UW is such a big place!"

Hollis Shostrom shares how the computer allows him to express his
"ideas to other people."  Mark Bessett tells how he uses a
mini-keyboard to access his computer.


Lloyd Gibson talks about how he enjoys exploring the Internet and
Randy Hammer shares his dorm experiences by saying "The early bird
catches the shower."  Nadira  Khan sums up with "It's really a
great program." To receive  a free copy of the video, call or write
the DO-IT office.

The second video tape, "Working Together: Faculty and Students
with Disabilities," was created to help college and university
faculty become more aware of the potential and academic needs of
students with disabilities.

Within the tape, successful post secondary students and faculty
discuss strategies for working together. DO-IT mentors Karl Booksh,
Wendy Pava, Kevin Berg and Gay Lloyd Pinder are featured. U.S. West
funded the creation of this video tape and NEC Foundation of
America has funded its distribution to engineering colleges
nationwide. Others can purchase this video tape with the
accompanying written materials for $20.

[with a tip of our ABLEnews' hat to Sheryl Burgstahler in ADA Law]

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