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ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY
Photographers with disabilities require ingenuity
By G. Denise Lance
While I would love to catch my great nephews and my dog during once-in-a-lifetime moments, my lack of coordination due to cerebral palsy has always made photography something I left to others in my family. Holding a camera up to my eye and trying to steady it while I press the button is an act of contortion for me. Even when I can hold a camera, I usually end up with either nice shots of my fingers, blurs, or crooked images.
I once took a fairly decent shot of my Dad with St. Louis' Gateway arch in the background, but that was with a Polaroid One-Step. Sadly, the only camera with which have ever felt at ease was a Fisher-Price 110 model that had handles on each side, two viewfinders, and a lovely lanyard, as shown in Figure A. Even more embarrassing, I bought it when I was 30.
FIGURE A
 
The Fisher-Price 110 has handles on each side. Roll over picture for a larger image.
Many people with disabilities enjoy photography, but limited mobility or hand use often requires a great deal of creativity to make cameras usable. While tripods offer a way to steady the camera, leaving both hands free, they are not always practical for those moving around to take shots.
Mounting mechanisms
People who use wheelchairs or power scooters have found ways to mount their equipment so that it is always ready. While a few commercial mounts are available from companies such as Orcca Technology, many photographers with disabilities have designed their own mounting mechanisms.
Loren Worthington talks about the challenges of taking pictures from a wheelchair in his Rolling F-Stop blog. As Worthington explains, cameras with pivoting LCD screens offer greater options because they can be positioned to the necessary angle even when the photographer can't move around much.
Because he has limited use of his hands, controlling the shutter is not a simple task. Worthington adapted his Olympus E-330 with a tongue switch made by Conceptus. Since the E-330 did not have an input for a remote, Worthington also purchased an I/R converter modified with a 2.5mm plug from Gentles Limited.
Figure B shows Worthington's camera with adaptations he admits lacks beauty and ruggedness but excels in functionality.
FIGURE B
 
Loren Worthington made a few changes to his Olympus E-330. Roll over picture for a larger image.
Michael Papp at the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center (RERC) on Workplace Accommodations at the Georgia Institute of Technology devised the adapted camera system in Figure C for a photographer with quadriplegia.
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