Technology Opens New Doors - Literally
By Murphy, Patti; Exceptional Parent Magazine, Vol. 38, No. 7, pp. 20-22Publication Date: July 2008
Article about a college student with cerebral palsy living independently in an on-campus apartment with the aid of assistive technology. The student is a senior at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, a campus with a well-supported system of Personal Assistants (PAs) and known for its wheelchair accessibility, including an underground tunnel system connecting the classroom buildings. The senior’s four PAs, themselves students, assist with daily hygiene, meals, shopping, cleaning, and wheelchair transfers. Attached to her power wheelchair she has a DynaVox Vmax speech-generating device with which she communicates, scanning and selecting vocabulary programmed into the device. The Vmax is also connected to her cell phone for sending text messages, to her computer for maintaining the PA schedule, and to her TV set and lights in her apartment. For use in an emergency, a telephone is mounted on the student’s bed and outfitted with a single oversized button which, when pressed, routes a call to the PAs and, if they are not available, to the student’s mother.
Assistive Products Discussed: DYNAVOX VMAX
Published by: EP Global Communications (Website:http://www.eparent.com)
This publication is included in the library of the National Rehabilitation Information Center (NARIC), accession number J55928
