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DIRK STAHLECKER: So I thought
that this class would allow me

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an opportunity to, first off,
create some sort of application

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or product that would be
interesting and enjoyable

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to make and, more importantly,
have an actual impact.

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It would be working with
someone and doing something

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that would directly benefit
them and allow them to improve

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their daily lives in some way.

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That gives it a lot more
meaning and a lot more power,

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and makes it a lot more
enjoyable of an experience

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to create.

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So, I really wasn't
entirely sure

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what it all would
entail initially.

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I knew we'd be working
with the clients,

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and I knew we'd be
creating a product,

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but I didn't realize
all of the focus that

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would be put on
looking at the client,

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the contextual
analysis, figuring out

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what it is that the clients can
do, wants to do, is able to do.

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And there was a lot
of focus on features

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other than directly creating the
piece of assistive technology.

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And I didn't expect that
that would be the case.

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But I realized it was
critical that that was there.

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Because to really make
something successful,

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you have to understand all of
the context surrounding it.

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And to do something
that is really useful,

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you have to know what it
is that the client needs.

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That's applicable both in an
assistive technology and just

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in working toward
it for any client.

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ARTHI VEZHAVENDAN: So
I came into this class

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hoping that I would be able to
work on a project that actually

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had an impact, because most of
the courses I had taken at MIT,

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they were theoretical.

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And you just work
on problem sets,

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and you hope to apply the things
that you learned after college.

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And so the last semester
and this semester,

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I've been trying to find
courses where I can actually

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use those skills immediately.

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And I feel like practicing
those skills is actually

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what's going to help
me learn them better,

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so learning through experience.

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And that's exactly what
I got out of this class.

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I was able to apply the web
design skills that I learned,

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and also just the whole
design process that we

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were told about, but actually
apply it into [INAUDIBLE].

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DIRK STAHLECKER: I learned
that there is always

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a lot more than meets the eye.

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I realized that
there's a lot of-- I

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was surprised working
with both our client

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and hearing about the
other clients in the class,

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how much they were able to do,
even given their disabilities.

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They were very well able
to do quite a lot of things

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that I wouldn't have
expected them to be able to.

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You have to really focus
on what their abilities are

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and what their needs are.

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And I think having a client
there in the first place

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gave us this level of
focus that is normally not

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found in creating, in our
case, a software application.

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We're looking at
a particular user

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and focusing on what one
particular person wants.

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And that made it a lot easier to
know what direction to take it,

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rather than having some nebulous
group of our supposed users

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out there that we didn't
actually know or interact with.

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I put in a lot of
time at the beginning

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to understanding the context and
the client and the situation.

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And it's really tempting to
jump right in and start coding,

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and we didn't do that.

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And I'm glad we didn't
do that, because we

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were able to
understand what it was

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we were supposed to be doing
and what direction we needed

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to take.

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So I think that's the
biggest piece of advice

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there, is to not start
coding right away,

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but make sure you really
understand what you're doing.

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ARTHI VEZHAVENDAN: So we went
through a bunch of iterations.

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First, we started off
with-- Originally,

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we just discussed
with our client

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what he wanted,
what his needs were.

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So we had four
people in our group,

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and we each
separated and came up

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with our own ideas of what
the client might want.

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And so we came up
with paper prototypes.

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And then we brought these four
versions into the next meeting

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and discussed what--
Our client told us

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what he liked about them and
what he didn't like about them.

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And so from that we've
collaborated and put those

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four together into a
final paper prototype.

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And then just kept
iterating from there,

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going back to our client, asking
what he liked about it, what

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he didn't like about it.

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And then once we had a
pretty finalized version

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of what we were hoping to
get out of this project,

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we went into actually
starting to code it

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and separating the
tasks and everything.

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The most challenging
aspect was probably

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while going through all
these iterations and coding,

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I kind of want to say it was
the actual implementation.

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So coming up with the ideas
and everything it was great.

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It was like a lot of
creativity and trying

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to fix these problems.

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But then actually going
into the coding portion

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was when we came
into the bugs of how

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do we actually implement what
we want out of our project.

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We know that we want a
certain type of screen there.

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We know how we want the
user to interact with it.

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But how do we actually
do this technically?

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And that was one of the
challenging parts of the class.

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DIRK STAHLECKER: I think
the blogs were really

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a time for reflection
and thinking

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about what it was we were doing.

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I used the blogs, at
least, as sort of a way

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to catalyze my analysis
of the subjects

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and the material presented
in class and the things

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we've been working on.

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So I took it and really
looked to analyze

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some thought I had been having,
trying to figure out how to

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[INAUDIBLE] one on, how to
make computers more accessible,

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and ways in which that is
sort of fundamental in a lot

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of the architecture and how it
makes it difficult to do that.

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Or just analyzing
different ways in which we

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are able to allow
people with disabilities

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to be more integrated
into society,

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and how society has
to potentially change

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their viewpoint a little
bit to allow that to happen

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to a greater degree.

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ARTHI VEZHAVENDAN: The most
engaging aspect was definitely

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working with all of the
people in the course,

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So my three other team
members and our client,

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which, like I said, you don't
entirely get in other courses.

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And in this one,
you're sitting down

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with the person who is going
to be using the product.

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And that was the most
engaging, because I

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knew it was going
to be fruitful,

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and I knew something was going
to come out of it at the end.

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DIRK STAHLECKER: I mean, as far
as an education perspective,

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at least, on this, I found
this is a course where

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I was motivated to
do the best I could,

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not by getting a good
grade or even as much

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about learning something
as it was about I really

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wanted to help the client.

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And I think it's the
client-centered focus

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of the course that
really drives it.

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And that is I feel the
most important aspect,

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because when you're working
with someone one on one,

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they're relying on you to
create something that you

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know is going to help them.

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You are really well
motivated to do the best

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you can on that product.

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And I think that making sure
that that emphasis is retained

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is the most important thing to
keep everyone really engaged

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in it and to get the
best quality of products

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that it's possible
from a class like this.

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And that's really the best
way to make it happen,

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in my perspective.

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ARTHI VEZHAVENDAN:
You're creating

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a product for your
client, but you're also

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learning more about a
certain person's lifestyle.

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And so make sure
to go beyond what

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you're making as a
product, but get to know

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your client as a person.

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And that's definitely going
to be even more fruitful,

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because then you're
not just focused

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on this one product,
product, product,

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but you're learning more of
how does this one person have

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to live with their
disabilities, and how can you

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integrate so many other
things in your environment

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to help them and these types of
people outside of the semester.