My fellow Blandin Broadband teammate Bill Coleman is giving a presentation at the Minnesota Gov Tech Symposium today. I’m kind of jealous but also happy not to travel in the bitter cold. We were emailing about the conference and he asked a great question about broadband boosting services for folks with disabilities.

I found a paper from the Benton Foundation, Universal Service and the Disability Community: The Need for Ubiquitous Broadband Deployment. It promotes the need to include broadband in with universal service. What I thought was most interesting was the brief examples of how broadband supports people with disabilities.

Some examples were common sense – with better broadband more people can work from home. For some people the physical act of getting to work it the hardest part of the job. As telecommuting options grow so do their opportunities for gainful and meaningful employment that suits their strengths. A specific example they mentioned was retirees who might be hindered by physical barriers but are able to share their expertise from home boosting the ability to become entrepreneurial and again support themselves through jobs that fit their skills level.

In that same boat, better broadband opens the door to remote healthcare solutions which can mean less time spent going to healthcare visits, more time doing more productive things – or more fun things. Remote monitoring can help keep people in their homes. It’s been fun to watch Home and Community Options of Winona and the work they have done with remote monitoring.

Some examples were pretty cool and innovative – such as the remote sign interpreters. Apparently there is a shortage of signers. I remember needing to hire one for an event and being very surprised at the hourly rate. Also you have to book far in advance – which wouldn’t work so well for an emergency call to a plumber or doctor. Well now you can hire one remotely. So the signer sits in the office with a PC-equipped video camera. They sign what they hear from the client’s side and the client can view the signer and respond accordingly.

Some examples make old services better – like the old relay services. Now they are primary run on broadband-based video relay services (VRS) . The FCC reported more than two million minutes of VRS use per month in 2005.

For people that are blind, there are searchable text and speak aloud software that makes information, especially news available more quickly than ever before. Apparently printed materials, such as textbooks, newspapers or government reports, can either be downloaded or viewed in real time over a broadband connection.

It was an interesting article that provided even more reasons for me to think broadband is a good way to go. Also it was inspiring to hear about how technology can and does change lives. In that vein, I wanted to mention the annual Closing the Gap conference held in Minnesota each October. It’s an amazing showcase of assistive tools and technology that help folks with a wide range of disabilities.

I’m always looking for the broadband killer app – as my 4 year old says, “We’re so lucky” we don’t need remote signers but for many people I have to think that’s a killer app!