a couple of years ago in June it was a
beautiful summer day with a clear blue
sky and a nice cool breeze perfect day I
found myself standing alone in a parking
lot completely unable to move the
parking lot is behind an old school in
downtown Ottawa that had been modified
to hold a place called computer wise and
I had just been there to drop off a
software tool I had written the tool
works pretty well and the person it was
for seemed to like it so I should be
feeling pretty good but I’m not the
feeling I was feeling was so profound
that I found myself standing there in
the parking lot just trying to figure
out exactly what it was
could it really just be as simple as
immense feeling of satisfaction what was
different about this tool what was
different about this experience so we’ll
come back to the parking lot
a little later let me tell you the story
of how I got there
my name is scalpel brick I’m from Canada
and I’m a tech guy a chip guy to be more
exact deep down I’m sort of a an
inventor a designer and a builder I’ve
made things like the electric banjo and
the retractable Lake steps the musical
teleprompter and some silly ones like
the happy foot soak or the Raptor system
and my all-time favorite shorts over
my friends and family joke around and
tease me a little bit about that and and
I always just smile and say well look
I’m I’m just trying to make the world a
better place
it usually gets them to stop teasing but
it does make you think make the world a
better place better how better for who
someone who sort of gets me suggested
that I look into joining the Tetra
Society tetra is an organization that
matches people like me with people in
need of highly specialized assistive
devices usually because of some unique
combination of abilities and desired
activity a avid canoeist
loses a limb in an accident so tetra
would make a special paddle I know a
woman who’s an avid traveler and she
bought some special wheelchair luggage
but the the latch was was too hard to
work so so we modify it to work for
properly I’ve got to work on some really
cool projects and meet some awesome
people
it was tetra that hooked me up with
another place called computer wise the
the place with the with the parking lot
now it’s hard to put into words how
awesome computer wise is it’s in this
modified school it’s the most accessible
place you can imagine everything is
level there’s automatic opening doors
inside it’s it’s set up like a regular
office there’s there’s cubes and
computers and the job coaches there help
people work with their computers things
like I gaze detectors or foot controlled
Mouse’s special keyboards it’s just it’s
wonderful
a typical day people show up on para
Transpo get going on their job coffee
breaks lunch there is is great a little
more work home on para Transpo fantastic
place so tetra sent me there to meet a
client named Steve and a job coach named
now the first time I went to computer
wise I was terrified I was at great risk
of saying or doing something terribly
inappropriate I had no idea what Steve
would be like or what his challenge it’s
worth we met Steve and William and did
the usual awkward chitchat and Williams
started to explain to me what was going
on Steve has a hard time using his
muscles he gets around in a power
wheelchair he can type slowly but surely
using a special keyboard William had
hooked up the joystick on Steve’s
wheelchair to act as a computer mouse
and so pointing and clicking is a really
effective way for for Steve to use as
his computer Steve doesn’t speak he
communicates using a thing called a
bliss board which is basically a big
piece of cardboard with a bunch of words
and the alphabet on it and during those
first few minutes Steve used the bliss
board to ask had we met before at a
Tetra computer wise meeting William had
to act as translator because it’s a bit
tricky to figure out what what Steve’s
staying on his bliss board I said no I’d
been away in in Vancouver on a business
trip William continued on with his idea
Steve had tried some rather expensive
speech synthesis tools and when I say
speech synthesis – I’ll think Stephen
Hawking and when I say expensive think
óbuda got car he hated them they were
useless they made it a little bit easier
for people to understand Steve but the
words were in different places the it
was too hard for him to work it and so
Williams idea was could Scott build an
electronic version of Steve’s bliss
board while we were sort of looking at
the board and I was taking these
pictures you see and I was thinking
about the project suddenly Steve grabbed
my arm
and he pointed at two words on his board
why jet so I managed not to panic I
thought hmm are you asking me about my
business trip to to Vancouver to banks
that means yes
now in a way this was Steve’s first
input on this tool and how it should
work Steve typically points at two words
or more often one word in one letter to
get his point across and as the person
trying to talk to Steve that’s that’s
pretty tricky and he’s upside down and
you have to keep track of the
conversation and what he might be asking
you about why jat a bit of a lucky guess
well what was I doing in Vancouver and
as I as I told Steve about visiting a
chip company in Vancouver and they
needed some help doing a chip that goes
in a CT scanner I could see that getting
to know Steve and visiting computer wise
what’s gonna be as much or more
important than any tool I might be able
to hack together much later William told
me that when he and Steve are talking
about me and I’m not around Steve points
okay we’re at the point of the speech
where it sort of makes sense to show you
show you a close-up of Steve’s board as
he calls it originally I thought I would
just show the source code it’s well
commented and I thought this is Kannada
my story should be self-evident from
from the code but they talked me out of
doing that so here’s here’s the board
and you can see it’s been used to type
the first thing Steve ever said to me
that I understood why jet the day in the
parking lot was the day I first dropped
off this tool for Steve to look at and
he started using it right away
practicing with it Williams idea that
replicating the Bliss board exactly was
it was
perfect it was it was exactly right
Steve would email me every couple of
weeks with with ideas to change the
colors to match the Bliss board better
change the labels on the page button
could I have the words speak out loud
immediately rather than waiting for the
read button up in the corner and that
the tool is really just a website so I
could make those changes right away and
then I’d wait to see how he liked it one
thing you might have noticed that’s a
little different from his actual Bliss
board is there’s no pictures on the
software – all I was having a real
struggle trying to download enough
pictures to match the words and get them
on the buttons in a way that that they
didn’t obscure that the text and so I I
finally wrote Steve an email apologizing
for the delay and he he wrote me back
and said oh I don’t need those pictures
now everybody involved with the project
thought this the pictures were critical
so you know we all learned something
one day I got an email and I could see
from the use of lowercase and uppercase
in the words that were in Steve’s email
he’d used the tool to write the email I
got a hold of William right away and
sure enough yeah Steve had figured out
that it was way easier for him to write
an email using the tool so we
immediately added a copy and paste
button to make it easier still a
completely new and unexpected use for
the tool that’s really become more
important than than the original purpose
the email feedback started coming more
quickly – and the development expect
accelerated plus Steve and I started
adding a little more chitchat so here’s
me telling Steve I’d been away on
another business trip this time to
Quebec City and he’s asking me how was
it he’d like to go there and what’s the
wheelchair accessibility like and in old
Quebec another thing I noticed about
about Steve’s bliss board was that to a
certain extent the the words on the
board were oriented towards getting
through the day I need such-and-such and
maybe not so much to having a
conversation
so I thought I’m gonna add some buttons
where Steve can actually program the
word himself source code for that is
really good but I can’t show
here’s Steve using the tool it’s a close
up and he’s plugging a radio station so
me and William and Steve the guy who
can’t talk on radio together the DJ Jeff
lorac at ckcu sent us the the script and
the questions he was going to ask Steve
way ahead of time and Steve took his
time programming the button so that when
the day came all he had to do was press
the one button to say the whole sentence
it was an awesome adventure and yet
another completely unexpected use for
the tool I emailed Steve to say boy that
was fun
he mailed me back and said it was do you
know anybody on TV now unbeknownst to us
someone actually heard that radio show
and sent our name into the 6 o’clock
news and Joel Haslem came and we
actually got on TV as well so that was
super fun I think the three of us are
probably gonna work on this tool forever
we are currently trying to get a version
going on a tablet so that Steve can have
it on his wheelchair as a portable
version we’re improving the assigned
function and making emails easier we’re
fooling around with predictive text so
right now when when he types one word in
one letter the tool pops up a bunch of
words that start with that letter just
in case the person can’t can’t figure it
out
we’ll see where we’ll see where that
goes Williams doing most of the coding
now and we’re gonna start using the tool
so let’s go back to the parking lot it
was a cool project and the tools really
neat but the message that I’m really
trying to convey is this I was so lucky
to find a way to take my passion the
thing I would have been doing anyway
and just do that thing in a way that
helped someone else and and and in a
small way made their world a better
place and the result was so moving and
so uplifting it was the most amazing
experience and I come back to this
parking lot often either literally I go
visit Steve and William and work on
other tatra projects or metaphorically
where I’m anxious or stressed and I
think about that wonderful feeling and
and how I can just do this and feel this
way and it doesn’t have to be a fancy
tool it doesn’t have to be anything more
than having lunch with someone or
reading a book or going for a walk I
think you know I invite you all to to do
it and join me here in this parking lot
and make the world a better place thank
you
[Applause] [Music]
beautiful summer day with a clear blue
sky and a nice cool breeze perfect day I
found myself standing alone in a parking
lot completely unable to move the
parking lot is behind an old school in
downtown Ottawa that had been modified
to hold a place called computer wise and
I had just been there to drop off a
software tool I had written the tool
works pretty well and the person it was
for seemed to like it so I should be
feeling pretty good but I’m not the
feeling I was feeling was so profound
that I found myself standing there in
the parking lot just trying to figure
out exactly what it was
could it really just be as simple as
immense feeling of satisfaction what was
different about this tool what was
different about this experience so we’ll
come back to the parking lot
a little later let me tell you the story
of how I got there
my name is scalpel brick I’m from Canada
and I’m a tech guy a chip guy to be more
exact deep down I’m sort of a an
inventor a designer and a builder I’ve
made things like the electric banjo and
the retractable Lake steps the musical
teleprompter and some silly ones like
the happy foot soak or the Raptor system
and my all-time favorite shorts over
my friends and family joke around and
tease me a little bit about that and and
I always just smile and say well look
I’m I’m just trying to make the world a
better place
it usually gets them to stop teasing but
it does make you think make the world a
better place better how better for who
someone who sort of gets me suggested
that I look into joining the Tetra
Society tetra is an organization that
matches people like me with people in
need of highly specialized assistive
devices usually because of some unique
combination of abilities and desired
activity a avid canoeist
loses a limb in an accident so tetra
would make a special paddle I know a
woman who’s an avid traveler and she
bought some special wheelchair luggage
but the the latch was was too hard to
work so so we modify it to work for
properly I’ve got to work on some really
cool projects and meet some awesome
people
it was tetra that hooked me up with
another place called computer wise the
the place with the with the parking lot
now it’s hard to put into words how
awesome computer wise is it’s in this
modified school it’s the most accessible
place you can imagine everything is
level there’s automatic opening doors
inside it’s it’s set up like a regular
office there’s there’s cubes and
computers and the job coaches there help
people work with their computers things
like I gaze detectors or foot controlled
Mouse’s special keyboards it’s just it’s
wonderful
a typical day people show up on para
Transpo get going on their job coffee
breaks lunch there is is great a little
more work home on para Transpo fantastic
place so tetra sent me there to meet a
client named Steve and a job coach named
now the first time I went to computer
wise I was terrified I was at great risk
of saying or doing something terribly
inappropriate I had no idea what Steve
would be like or what his challenge it’s
worth we met Steve and William and did
the usual awkward chitchat and Williams
started to explain to me what was going
on Steve has a hard time using his
muscles he gets around in a power
wheelchair he can type slowly but surely
using a special keyboard William had
hooked up the joystick on Steve’s
wheelchair to act as a computer mouse
and so pointing and clicking is a really
effective way for for Steve to use as
his computer Steve doesn’t speak he
communicates using a thing called a
bliss board which is basically a big
piece of cardboard with a bunch of words
and the alphabet on it and during those
first few minutes Steve used the bliss
board to ask had we met before at a
Tetra computer wise meeting William had
to act as translator because it’s a bit
tricky to figure out what what Steve’s
staying on his bliss board I said no I’d
been away in in Vancouver on a business
trip William continued on with his idea
Steve had tried some rather expensive
speech synthesis tools and when I say
speech synthesis – I’ll think Stephen
Hawking and when I say expensive think
óbuda got car he hated them they were
useless they made it a little bit easier
for people to understand Steve but the
words were in different places the it
was too hard for him to work it and so
Williams idea was could Scott build an
electronic version of Steve’s bliss
board while we were sort of looking at
the board and I was taking these
pictures you see and I was thinking
about the project suddenly Steve grabbed
my arm
and he pointed at two words on his board
why jet so I managed not to panic I
thought hmm are you asking me about my
business trip to to Vancouver to banks
that means yes
now in a way this was Steve’s first
input on this tool and how it should
work Steve typically points at two words
or more often one word in one letter to
get his point across and as the person
trying to talk to Steve that’s that’s
pretty tricky and he’s upside down and
you have to keep track of the
conversation and what he might be asking
you about why jat a bit of a lucky guess
well what was I doing in Vancouver and
as I as I told Steve about visiting a
chip company in Vancouver and they
needed some help doing a chip that goes
in a CT scanner I could see that getting
to know Steve and visiting computer wise
what’s gonna be as much or more
important than any tool I might be able
to hack together much later William told
me that when he and Steve are talking
about me and I’m not around Steve points
okay we’re at the point of the speech
where it sort of makes sense to show you
show you a close-up of Steve’s board as
he calls it originally I thought I would
just show the source code it’s well
commented and I thought this is Kannada
my story should be self-evident from
from the code but they talked me out of
doing that so here’s here’s the board
and you can see it’s been used to type
the first thing Steve ever said to me
that I understood why jet the day in the
parking lot was the day I first dropped
off this tool for Steve to look at and
he started using it right away
practicing with it Williams idea that
replicating the Bliss board exactly was
it was
perfect it was it was exactly right
Steve would email me every couple of
weeks with with ideas to change the
colors to match the Bliss board better
change the labels on the page button
could I have the words speak out loud
immediately rather than waiting for the
read button up in the corner and that
the tool is really just a website so I
could make those changes right away and
then I’d wait to see how he liked it one
thing you might have noticed that’s a
little different from his actual Bliss
board is there’s no pictures on the
software – all I was having a real
struggle trying to download enough
pictures to match the words and get them
on the buttons in a way that that they
didn’t obscure that the text and so I I
finally wrote Steve an email apologizing
for the delay and he he wrote me back
and said oh I don’t need those pictures
now everybody involved with the project
thought this the pictures were critical
so you know we all learned something
one day I got an email and I could see
from the use of lowercase and uppercase
in the words that were in Steve’s email
he’d used the tool to write the email I
got a hold of William right away and
sure enough yeah Steve had figured out
that it was way easier for him to write
an email using the tool so we
immediately added a copy and paste
button to make it easier still a
completely new and unexpected use for
the tool that’s really become more
important than than the original purpose
the email feedback started coming more
quickly – and the development expect
accelerated plus Steve and I started
adding a little more chitchat so here’s
me telling Steve I’d been away on
another business trip this time to
Quebec City and he’s asking me how was
it he’d like to go there and what’s the
wheelchair accessibility like and in old
Quebec another thing I noticed about
about Steve’s bliss board was that to a
certain extent the the words on the
board were oriented towards getting
through the day I need such-and-such and
maybe not so much to having a
conversation
so I thought I’m gonna add some buttons
where Steve can actually program the
word himself source code for that is
really good but I can’t show
here’s Steve using the tool it’s a close
up and he’s plugging a radio station so
me and William and Steve the guy who
can’t talk on radio together the DJ Jeff
lorac at ckcu sent us the the script and
the questions he was going to ask Steve
way ahead of time and Steve took his
time programming the button so that when
the day came all he had to do was press
the one button to say the whole sentence
it was an awesome adventure and yet
another completely unexpected use for
the tool I emailed Steve to say boy that
was fun
he mailed me back and said it was do you
know anybody on TV now unbeknownst to us
someone actually heard that radio show
and sent our name into the 6 o’clock
news and Joel Haslem came and we
actually got on TV as well so that was
super fun I think the three of us are
probably gonna work on this tool forever
we are currently trying to get a version
going on a tablet so that Steve can have
it on his wheelchair as a portable
version we’re improving the assigned
function and making emails easier we’re
fooling around with predictive text so
right now when when he types one word in
one letter the tool pops up a bunch of
words that start with that letter just
in case the person can’t can’t figure it
out
we’ll see where we’ll see where that
goes Williams doing most of the coding
now and we’re gonna start using the tool
so let’s go back to the parking lot it
was a cool project and the tools really
neat but the message that I’m really
trying to convey is this I was so lucky
to find a way to take my passion the
thing I would have been doing anyway
and just do that thing in a way that
helped someone else and and and in a
small way made their world a better
place and the result was so moving and
so uplifting it was the most amazing
experience and I come back to this
parking lot often either literally I go
visit Steve and William and work on
other tatra projects or metaphorically
where I’m anxious or stressed and I
think about that wonderful feeling and
and how I can just do this and feel this
way and it doesn’t have to be a fancy
tool it doesn’t have to be anything more
than having lunch with someone or
reading a book or going for a walk I
think you know I invite you all to to do
it and join me here in this parking lot
and make the world a better place thank
you
[Applause] [Music]
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