First year experience at the University of Connecticut with NSF design projects to aid persons with disabilities

This paper provides an overview of the first year experience at University of Connecticut (UConn) with National Science Foundation (NSF) Senior Design Projects to Aid Persons with Disabilities. Devices and software to aid persons with disabilities often need custom modification, are prohibitively expensive, or even nonexistent. Much of the disabled community does not have access to custom modification of available devices, and other benefits of current technology. Moreover, when available, engineering and support salaries make the cost of any custom modifications beyond the reach of most disabled individuals. The NSF in 1988 started to provide a mechanism whereby student engineers at universities throughout the United States designed and constructed devices for persons with disabilities. This program combined the academic requirement of a design experience with enhanced educational opportunities for students, and improved the quality of life for disabled individuals. Students and university faculty provided, through their normal ABET accredited senior design class, engineering time to design and build the device or software, and the NSF provided funds, competitively awarded to universities, for supplies, equipment and fabrication costs for the design projects. Described in this report are first year experiences at UConn with this NSF program including lecture topics, site visits to clients and project selection, required reports and the WWW, course structure and organization.