Go to previous article 
Go to next article 
Return to 2005 Table of Contents 

ENHANCED FUNCTIONALITY ADDED TO ABLEDATA'S WEB SITE

Presenter(s)
Stephen W. Lowe
Associate Project Manager, ABLEDATA
8630 Fenton Street, Suite 930, Silver Spring, MD 20910
Email: Stephen.W.Lowe@orcmacro.com

I. Introduction

ABLEDATA provides information on assistive technology (A.T.) and rehabilitation equipment available from U.S. and international sources to people with disabilities, their families and caregivers, disability organizations, rehabilitation and medical professionals, and a variety of other audiences within the U.S. and around the world. The National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR) of the U.S. Department of Education sponsors the project.

The central information asset of ABLEDATA is the database of products for people with disabilities. The database contains objective information on more than 31,000 products provided by over 3,000 manufacturers and distributors, making ABLEDATA one of the largest and most comprehensive sources of information on commercially available assistive products. ABLEDATA also provides information on as well as custom-built and do-it-yourself products. ABLEDATA staff do not recommend or prescribe assistive products to the public. Our mission is to provide the public with information about the full range of A.T. options available to them.

II. www.ABLEDATA.com

The ABLEDATA Web site at www.abledata.com is the project's major medium for information dissemination. The site provides people around the world with access to all of the project's resources. It is a nationally and internationally recognized resource for assistive technology information.

All of ABLEDATA's resources are available on the Web site. These resources include the following:

- the ABLEDATA database for assistive products;
- the A.T. Library database of citations of books and articles relating to assistive technology;
- links to, and information on, a wide range of resources useful to assistive technology consumers and people with disabilities;
- ABLEDATA's publications-fact sheets and informed consumer guides to help in the selection of appropriate assistive products;
- news about assistive technology and disability issues in general;
- classified advertisements for job openings and adaptive equipment;
- information on conferences relating to A.T. and other disability issues;
- a forum where A.T. users can post product reviews.

Access to the site is completely free to all people, and project staff continually work to ensure that all of the site's content is up-to-date and completely accessible to all people.

III. Revising the ABLEDATA Web Site

The preceding list of the ABLEDATA site's content helps illustrates a major reason for redesigning the site. Only two of the old site's information resources are in databases. The remainder of the site's content is static HTML. Updating and expanding static content is labor intensive and time consuming, and there is no way to relate static content elements to one another. To remedy this, we moved all of the site's information resources into a relational database that forms the backbone of the redesigned ABLEDATA site.

A test version of the redesigned site was launched in August 2004. On the date that this paper is being submitted, the test site has been available to the public for approximately one month. We anticipate closing the older site and switching to the new site by the end of 2004.

We believe that the new features of site will improve each user's experience and ability to find the information he/she needs. Also, the increased efficiency of maintaining the databases allows the ABLEDATA staff to devote more time to search for new information resources and to improve and expand the project's other products and services.

IV. New Features Added to ABLEDATA .com

Significant new functionality, built on the new database back end, will be added to the ABLEDATA site. In addition to improving the ability of users to retrieve information on assistive products, these features will aid in the collection of new and updated product information, and they will provide users with more of an opportunity to contribute to site content then they currently have.

A. Unified Search Results

Many people liked the concept of the old site's Resource Centers, each one of which is a single Web page from which all of the resources known to ABLEDATA on a given topic can be accessed. By moving all of the resources into a relational database, the concept of the Resource Center is taken to a new level that allows for the dynamic creation of a Center on practically any topic. For example, a person searching for a "racing wheelchair" in the database of assistive products may receive a list of nine racing chairs listed in the database. The enhanced search capabilities of the database-backed site also will provide this person with additional information on racing wheelchairs including any classified ads for racing wheelchairs, announcements of conferences or events relating to wheelchair use, recent news items on wheelchair sports, related literature citations in the A.T. Library database, and links to sites of interest to wheelchair buyers and athletes. In effect, this user will build a personal Resource Center on racing wheelchairs.

B. Submit site content

Site visitors can create site content in such categories as classified advertisements, product reviews, conferences and other events, and Web resources. This content will be available to the public after it is approved by project staff. Users who submit content in certain categories may be required to complete certain information. For example, a person submitting a classified will be required to provide a name, city, state, and country (if outside of the U.S.) and will be encouraged to include phone number(s) as well.

All content submitted is reviewed by project staff. Once approved, an entry becomes available immediately on the appropriate site pages and shows up in searches.

C. MyABLEDATA

To provide the site with more user-centered functionality, ABLEDATA has added a registration feature that will be called MyABLEDATA. Any site visitor will be able to sign up to establish a MyABLEDATA user name and password. The only other information required to complete registration will be the user's email address. The majority of our users have their own email address; however, for the few who don't, we will provide special instructions. Users who register with MyABLEDATA will be able to customize the site to their personal needs in the following ways:

1. Save searches

MyABLEDATA users are able to save search strategies for later use. When combined with the advanced searching capabilities previously described, this will allow people to essentially save their own custom resource centers that include Web resources, publications, conferences, products and manufacturers tailored to their specific interests.

2. Save accessibility settings

All users are now able to select style sheet options that provide the most accessible interface for his/her needs. For MyABLEDATA users, this choice is saved and applied for future visits. Some of the options that can be changed are backgrounds, font faces, font sizes, and colors. Users may also specify whether they wanted their default view to completely omit graphics.

3. MyABLEDATA for A.T. Companies

Manufacturers and distributors of assistive products are provided with enhanced abilities when they register with MyABLEDATA. Registered companies are able to edit the records for their products, enter information on new products that they sell, and revise their contact information. Records created or edited by a company will not immediately be made a part of the live database that is accessible to the public. Since ABLEDATA product information is required to be objective, the records will be reviewed and edited as necessary by project staff before being added to the live database.

For distributors, who may sell hundreds of products, we provide an interface that will allow a company representative who logs in to indicate which products that distributor sells. The interface will allow a distributor to browse through the product database, and indicate which products the company sells simply by clicking a button ("Add Product").

Unlike regular MyABLEDATA users, A.T. companies do not assign themselves a user name and password. Instead, ABLEDATA staff will contact all listed manufacturers and distributors after this system is tested to offer the opportunity to be use the site as a manufacturer or distributor. Those that accept will be assigned a user name and password by project staff. As with all other services of the ABLEDATA site, MyABLEDATA is free to all companies with assistive products listed by ABLEDATA.

V. Conclusion

Go to previous article 
Go to next article 
Return to 2005 Table of Contents