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The future for Open
Source in Assistive
Technology
David Banes and Joe
Reddington

2
What do we mean by Open
• Open Licencing takes a variety of forms
• Creative Commons
• OER-Commons
• Open Source
• Understanding the basis of open licences is
important to use it effectively

3
Creative Commons

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Open Educational Resource

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Open Source

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Open Source is increasingly important
• To understand the importance of open source
and open licences we need to understand the
changing world in which we live
• To meet the evolving global and local needs
new approaches are needed
• Some of these link with existing solutions
• Others seek to disrupt

7
Change in Behaviour and expectations
• The future of open source AT is dictated by a
number of factors
– Customer expectations
– Customer behaviour
– Funding pressure
– Global Marketplace
– Changing relationship between customer and
developer

8
What is happening to the AT industry
• Technology Shift
– Mobile, portable, pervasive
– Internet of Things, Wearables etc
• Business model shift
– From upfront payments to service and
subscription
– Freemium models
• Customer shift
– Changing demographics and users

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Success stories in Open Licence
• Android
– Basis of wide range of devices
– Phones, tablets, media players, smart TV
• Moodle
– Basis of elearning platforms and Moocs
• Drupal
– Used for website design by large and small web
owners

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Success stories in Open AT
• NVDA
– Widely used screenreader
– Distributed for free
– Supported by grants and donations
• ATBar
– Browser plug combining open access tools into a
single interface
– Supports Arabic, English and Swedish
– Grant funded

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Open Licencing
Open-licencing is giving everyone the automatic
right to use, modify and share work, free of
charge.
“Very worthy, but it obviously can’t succeed in
practice….”
-People who haven’t heard of Wikipedia or Firefox
“Well, it obviously can’t be part of a commercial
project.”
- People who haven’t heard of mySQL (bought by Sun for
over a billion dollars in 2008)

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Expanding the scope of Open AT
• Communication
– Development of AAC Solutions
– Open Symbol sets
– Open Distribution
• Low vision
– Magnifiers for phones and tablets
– Linked to hardware
• On screen keyboards and physical access
– Keyboards
– Head controllers
– Switch interfaces

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AAC
• Augmentative and
Alternative
Communication (AAC)
is the term used to
describe various
methods of
communication that
can ‘add-on’ to speech
and are used to get
around problems with
ordinary speech.

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A Short History of AAC…
• Pre-2010…
– Few, big, manufacturers,
expensive and dominant
• 2010 – iPad!
– Rise of commercial apps
(proloquo2go)
– Many traditional
suppliers were bought
out, close, withdraw, or
merge.

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A Short History…
• 2015 – Openess
– Free Symbols (Mulberry,
ARASAAC, Tawasol)
– Free Symbols put into open
pagesets (CommuniKate)
– Open pagesets put into
open formats (Open Board
Format)
– Open formats starting to be
used in free (the Open
Voice Factory) and
commercial (CoughDrop)
software.

16
Open Licences can be applied in different ways
• Source
• Content
• Platform
• Distribution
• Commercial v Non Commercial

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Why Open Approaches are good.
1. Resilience
– When companies went out of business following the iPad launch in 2010, lots
of users where left high and dry. Open projects by nature are protected
(Mulberry had closed down before it was used in CommuniKate)
2. Free
– While the developed world might be able to afford all the AAC technology it
needs, there are millions of people in developing countries that commercial
solutions will never reach.
3. Prevent Lockout
– Commercial approaches are invested in keeping people within their range,
so it’s hard to move. Open approaches are invested in other people helping,
so they make it much easier to convert.
4. Research
– Current approaches are locked down and difficult to use my researchers,
open approaches are modifiable and easy to access

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Where Open approaches have problems
1. Hardware
– Open software is easy, open hardware much harder – there will
be a delay in catching up.
2. Cultural
– The people who make open source software aren’t the people
who work with AAC users. Cues can be missed.
3. Legal
– The legal status of open software for ‘medical’ reasons is
undefined – different in every country and the approval systems
mesh badly with open ‘fast iteration’ approaches.
4. Poison Pill
– What if free software for most users kills off the people who
supply the software for the most complex cases?

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Open Hardware
• Distribution of designs and components
• 3D printing
• Sharealike principle
• Manufacture locally with local tools

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Now!
• Now!
– Pace of change is accelerating, and lots of little
projects are starting to join up and work together.
– Quality is rising – still NOT competitive with
buying, but making a difference to real people.

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Example
Open voice factory

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Example
Coughdrop

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Example
Tawasol

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What is changing ?
• Distribution of mobile and portable solutions
• Distribution of designs
• Distribution of training

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Open licences and localisation
• Open licences can allow content to be
modified
• Open licences can allow content to be
presented in different ways
• Open licences can allow content to be
translated and localised

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Disruption and Open Licence
Global Innovation
• Key drivers of disruptive innovation stimulating
open source
• Changing global demographics
– Aging
– Increased disabled populations
– Changing attitudes and policy
• Growth of university innovation
• No legacy of prior technologies and solutions
• Addressing new ideas to meet local and global
needs

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Summary
• The area has hit a critical mass and will keep
growing.
• Most likely that free solutions will cut their
teeth in developing, and underserved
countries and then come back.
• The overall affect will be a growth in the
market, NOT a loss of revenue.
• Number of freelance trainers will grow, as
will the ‘gig-economy’.

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Network,
Learn,
Share
David Banes
David@davebanesaccess.org
Thanks to Joe Reddington and
Steve Lee