Krista Caudill, a deaf and blind undergraduate researcher, is helping to design a portable computer that will "speak" as she types and will translate other people's speech into Braille.

A student at the University of Delaware, Caudill is participating in a National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded project to design the system that will begin to free her and others from total dependence on sign-language interpreters in order to communicate.

The approximately $98,000 two-year NSF grant to Richard Foulds of A.I. duPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, Del. will include Caudill and several other students, who will design and evaluate the system.

Caudill and NSF program director Gary Strong will speak about the prototype system and the broader implications of computers for persons with disabilities. Foulds and Beth Finn (the other undergraduate researcher on the team) will also be available to answer questions.

Who: Krista Caudill, University of Delaware;
Gary Strong, NSF Human Compt. Interaction Program Director

What: Morning Newsmaker

When: 10 a.m. Thursday, July 30

Where: National Press Club, Murrow Room, 14th and F Streets NW, Washington D.C.

For more information contact: Beth Gaston, 703-306-1070 or [email protected]