One Laptop Per Child
AT, UD, and One Laptop Per ChildOne Laptop per Child Initiative (known as OLPC) hopes to place $100 laptops into the hands of kids in the developing world. OLPC has been underway for several years now and is just now moving into a stage where the laptops are ready for distribution and various projects, etc. have been set up. It's a big topic and evokes a lot of discussion.Will the OLPC laptop, referred to fondly as the XO laoptop, support various assistive technologies (AT)? SNOW's particular interest centres around assistive techhnology and inclusion. We think of assistive technologies as essential Universal Design (UD) features which make computers accessible to everyone. Features such as text-to-speech, on-screen keyboards, and voice recognition, to name a few, need to be part of the XO laptop right out of the box.
What accessibility solutions exist at present for the XO? Is this machine fast enough to support built-in AT features? A $100 laptop which comes with built-in AT features that normally cost many hundreds of dollars would be really something.
For more information about the OLPC, check out these links:
The Official MIT Media Lab Link
Wall Street Journal article - Will Low-Cost Laptops Help Kids in Developing Countries?
BBC article - Portables to Power PC Industry points out that "(t)he XO laptop may have been created to help children in developing nations, but its influence is likely to be felt far beyond the classroom."
Blog: Colonialism's new look for the 21st century: OLPC, One Laptop per Child
What are your thoughts about the XO computer Have you
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