Liberator 14 Trial
It’s the penultimate night of my Liberator trial, and I wish I used it more. In the short time I had it, I grew to start to be acquainted with how the language Unity works again.
With an overview of the device in mind, it takes less presses on my chin switch, but it takes more time with the number of columns and rows on the keyboard. I tried increasing the scan speed, but although I could ask my PA to press the Tools Button, it was slower and more limiting than EZ-Keys that I normally use. The Unity software was 84-hit.
I used an earlier version on a Touch Talker in my teenage years with which I operated my finger typing. The particular system has the typing facility on it, but the keyboard is upright and has no option for filter keys. When I got the system trial, I told Eleri the representative that I hardly had prior knowledge. She sent me a cd of the software, but I downloaded the manual in the following days after the trial start.
I kept switching between Unity and Word Core during the trial. One resets sentences in the other, so I didn’t think it was reliable that way. I didn’t use it outside but I saw the potential for it, as opposed to EZ-Keys on the laptop being plugged in on a consistent basis.
On Tuesday, I am trading it in for the MyTobii C12, which will be on another two week trial. I last used an eye gaze system two years ago, but it was its predecessor. The speech therapists think it is the way forward for me but I have to decide after the two weeks. I want to realize whether I can use it outside and in what way I can use it in tandem with my switch and hand. Also, I want to find out how independent I am with getting around with the system.
Saturday, October 1 2011
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Saturday, July 9, 2011
One year on
It's a year after getting the power chair and I am starting to type on the keyboard again. I loaned two adapted keyboards from Enable Ireland two or three weeks ago, and here's what I typed on my own keyboard.
Im typing with 1.0 second filter keys and it feels good. Wrist hurts a tiny bit
but that’s ok. I last finger-typed at 16. it takes getting used to
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Voice and its Channels
Voices and its Channels
Everything is about signs or pointing when you don’t have a voice. What other people refer to talking is taken for granted. There is a cobweb of silence that you have to find your way through in order to establish a channel with someone else. Talking takes on a new meaning.
I press a switch under my chin on a laptop to communicate. The system has got me through college and immersed me within the world of journalism. However, there is a limit that a chin can do. Alternative and Augmentative Communication (AAC) is a variety of language systems that people with communication difficulties use to break through some medium or other. Recently, I am starting to realise that there are more options open to me than the single chin switch.
Before everything, I relied on my natural resources - body and eye contact. Being born with cerebral palsy, I had to learn Bliss Symbols which saw me coming to grasp on 500 symbols when I was eight or nine years old. The symbols were on a board that I pointed to with my finger. Every sentence was a series of symbols that had its own grammar – nouns, verbs, prepositions, conjunctions, etc.
If a word was not on the board, I could join two word meanings together or point out letters of the alphabet. It provided me a springboard for the various communication systems I have used to negotiate my voice in able-bodied society. I have used a myriad of outputs and technologies since then. From a Spectrum with an expanded keyboard, onto an Apple with key guard, and finally I got my first voice synthesizer – the Touch Talker. It was after a while when I changed from finger typing to the chin switch. Recently, I have regained control of my right arm again and have rediscovered the valuable resources in non-tech systems.
Communication is a multi-modal process. It’s all stuck in your head. The matter is getting it out. For someone non-verbal, conversation can’t flow as other ones done by other people. Accordingly, it takes a toll on the thought processes of the person albeit they have normal intelligence.
Eye controlled technology has been improved a lot over the last two or three years. People say the eyes are the mirrors to the soul. It’s said that eye gaze systems can be five times faster than pressing on a single switch and that the method will replace its predecessor. A model costs from €14,000-€18,000.
Time isn’t exactly a prerequisite when you can’t talk. On average, it takes me from two to five minutes to compose any normal sentence. Five minutes are an eternity whether you’re talking to someone else or even more time in a group. Getting across your point can seem impossible with all those other strands of thought flying about.
High-tech systems serve their purpose, but low-tech matrices are as equally as important. Having a screen in front of you can take its effect on the interaction, while at the same time, words always do their thing - whether with or without speed.
For non-tech systems, people say out letters of the alphabet, and then I stop them at the appropriate letter that I want by nodding my head. There are additionally two more systems I intend to start using with my Personal Assistants. One of them is a letter board that I point my finger at. It takes time and effort to direct my hand onto the board – the hand which I have reclaimed after 20 years.
The other system is a grid that one of my PA’s (a non-national) came up with a number of years ago. It is the alphabet divided up by columns and rows, that are labelled by numbers from one to five. Someone scans through the columns across first verbally until my nod, and then go down the rows likewise. I have memorised the grid so that it can be used anywhere.
I have been exploring financial incentives for a eye gaze system – both personal and public. I approached my Occupational Therapist years ago, but it was an early stage. It was at an experimental phase. My chin switch and its software are like my safety blanket, that gets me through thick and thin. I have referred to eye gaze as making me almost fluent, that I have to jump for, but it can well be my downfall.
Having no voice may make other people see your insides out. A voice is the outcome of a person’s thoughts. Choice is an innate power that we all have – to create channels in order to make those thoughts into ability. It’s what we make from it what matters.
The International Society for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (ISAAC) “supports and encourages the best possible communication methods for people who find communication difficult”. Click www.isaac-online.org
Everything is about signs or pointing when you don’t have a voice. What other people refer to talking is taken for granted. There is a cobweb of silence that you have to find your way through in order to establish a channel with someone else. Talking takes on a new meaning.
I press a switch under my chin on a laptop to communicate. The system has got me through college and immersed me within the world of journalism. However, there is a limit that a chin can do. Alternative and Augmentative Communication (AAC) is a variety of language systems that people with communication difficulties use to break through some medium or other. Recently, I am starting to realise that there are more options open to me than the single chin switch.
Before everything, I relied on my natural resources - body and eye contact. Being born with cerebral palsy, I had to learn Bliss Symbols which saw me coming to grasp on 500 symbols when I was eight or nine years old. The symbols were on a board that I pointed to with my finger. Every sentence was a series of symbols that had its own grammar – nouns, verbs, prepositions, conjunctions, etc.
If a word was not on the board, I could join two word meanings together or point out letters of the alphabet. It provided me a springboard for the various communication systems I have used to negotiate my voice in able-bodied society. I have used a myriad of outputs and technologies since then. From a Spectrum with an expanded keyboard, onto an Apple with key guard, and finally I got my first voice synthesizer – the Touch Talker. It was after a while when I changed from finger typing to the chin switch. Recently, I have regained control of my right arm again and have rediscovered the valuable resources in non-tech systems.
Communication is a multi-modal process. It’s all stuck in your head. The matter is getting it out. For someone non-verbal, conversation can’t flow as other ones done by other people. Accordingly, it takes a toll on the thought processes of the person albeit they have normal intelligence.
Eye controlled technology has been improved a lot over the last two or three years. People say the eyes are the mirrors to the soul. It’s said that eye gaze systems can be five times faster than pressing on a single switch and that the method will replace its predecessor. A model costs from €14,000-€18,000.
Time isn’t exactly a prerequisite when you can’t talk. On average, it takes me from two to five minutes to compose any normal sentence. Five minutes are an eternity whether you’re talking to someone else or even more time in a group. Getting across your point can seem impossible with all those other strands of thought flying about.
High-tech systems serve their purpose, but low-tech matrices are as equally as important. Having a screen in front of you can take its effect on the interaction, while at the same time, words always do their thing - whether with or without speed.
For non-tech systems, people say out letters of the alphabet, and then I stop them at the appropriate letter that I want by nodding my head. There are additionally two more systems I intend to start using with my Personal Assistants. One of them is a letter board that I point my finger at. It takes time and effort to direct my hand onto the board – the hand which I have reclaimed after 20 years.
The other system is a grid that one of my PA’s (a non-national) came up with a number of years ago. It is the alphabet divided up by columns and rows, that are labelled by numbers from one to five. Someone scans through the columns across first verbally until my nod, and then go down the rows likewise. I have memorised the grid so that it can be used anywhere.
I have been exploring financial incentives for a eye gaze system – both personal and public. I approached my Occupational Therapist years ago, but it was an early stage. It was at an experimental phase. My chin switch and its software are like my safety blanket, that gets me through thick and thin. I have referred to eye gaze as making me almost fluent, that I have to jump for, but it can well be my downfall.
Having no voice may make other people see your insides out. A voice is the outcome of a person’s thoughts. Choice is an innate power that we all have – to create channels in order to make those thoughts into ability. It’s what we make from it what matters.
The International Society for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (ISAAC) “supports and encourages the best possible communication methods for people who find communication difficult”. Click www.isaac-online.org
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Acquiring a Voice in Barcelona
During the summer, I went back to my roots. I didn’t go home. I returned to Spain – the same place where some people go on holidays, lose themselves and never to resurface.
The International Society for Augmentative and Alternative Communication, or ISAAC, held a conference in Barcelona in July. The organisation is made up from professionals, therapists, end-users, and families who have communication difficulties. The language which AAC adheres to has got symbols, words/letters and gestures as part of its non-verbal syntax.
Being born with cerebral palsy, I had to learn Bliss Symbols which saw me coming to grasp on 500 symbols when I was eight or nine years old. The symbols were on a board that I pointed to with my finger. Every sentence was a series of symbols that had its own grammar – nouns, verbs, prepositions, conjunctions, etc.
If a word was not on the board, I could join two word meanings together or point out letters of the alphabet. It provided me a springboard for the various communication systems I have used to negotiate my voice in able-bodied society.
As soon as I landed, the conference was in action already with pre-conference seminars. The lecture was done by an Australian centre on cerebral palsy, and they took on the slant on the condition being asymmetrical and that the body lacked coordination and balance. This imbalance is the consequence of that there is a message misinterpretation between the brain and the body.
The majority of AAC users have cerebral palsy, but there are other disabilities also. In spite of having some effects of your life seen under the microscope, it made me start seeing my disability in a different way.
The conference opened with a musical performance. The piece was synthetic guitar with different sounds like beeps, horns and speech done by AAC users. The precision of the music was executed by the players despite their disability. I have given a few similar performances beforehand in order to promote eye controlled technology.
I press a switch under my chin to type what I say on a laptop today, remembering the days when I finger typed as a child. It was before I developed scoliosis from the twisting of my back in secondary school. Secondary school was mainstream where I had very limited access to specialised services.
After speeches from local Catalan government representatives and others, the lecture rooms quickly filled up and emptied like hives. Every talk was 40 minutes and there were seven papers delivered simultaneously. There was a problem with the paper schedule in that the times and titles were not clearly shown.
So the hives buzzed for four days. The talks included the sentence structuring in AAC – different models, surveys examining relationships within families with users, and a couple of user forums. The sentence structuring in AAC also incorporated how much the language of users was dependent in their voice systems in terms of idea formation and expression. Accordingly, Minspeak has taken over from Bliss Symbols today as a symbolic syntax.
In one user forum, the opening question of whether disability was too much for people in their lives generally broke the proverbial ice – but not for me. It was as stark as night. Clearly, I was rediscovering the environment so it was a culture shock.
Eye controlled technology or what is known eye gaze is a recent enough breakthrough and it was the subject of some talks. It has seen a changeover to the communication method from using a switch, and in some instances, from not being able to find an output at all. It is said that eye gaze can be five times faster than pressing on a switch.
However, back at the forum, the other query of whether people felt frustrated, in that talking was more laborious and slower, was asked to which I gave “yes, I generally ignore it”. The lighthearted answer got some laughter, but it got afterthought as well.
Seeing several users using eye gaze and head pointing, where the user aims an infrared beam at a screen board, brought me to perceive other modes of talking. I have carried out testimonies of a variety of systems, but I have not been able to choose one. Between regaining control of my right hand and the big expense in purchasing a computer, I am in no-mans-land.
I was absolutely delighted to see well-renowned GDIL activist and poet Mairead Manton to be my Irish counterpart despite some professional workers. It made you to say to yourself that language constituted community.
ISAAC Barcelona brought me to further realize my own difficulties and to point me in the right direction of finding solutions. Using a switch under my chin has served me well until this stage in my life, albeit I look on it as a security-blanket. I have referred to my chin switch as being mechanical and to the eye gaze as fluent. Seeing people using their own systems brought home the notion to use whatever way possible in your capacity.
Obviously, there was an overwhelming sense of clinical professionalism, but isn’t that where life in these kind of shoes starts out from? I met a load of fellow AAC users from across the world – European, American, Australian, and even a family from Japan!
I asked how many ISAAC conferences they attended – to which five or six was the response. It was actually my first… Pittsburgh 2012 – here I come! (with a bit of money and luck)
Over the years, I have had over 20 Spanish Personal Assistants working for me. They had me visiting them in their own country and I even found myself being loosely engaged in many a Spanish conversation.
ISAAC Barcelona was like a coming home for me with a new voice
The International Society for Augmentative and Alternative Communication, or ISAAC, held a conference in Barcelona in July. The organisation is made up from professionals, therapists, end-users, and families who have communication difficulties. The language which AAC adheres to has got symbols, words/letters and gestures as part of its non-verbal syntax.
Being born with cerebral palsy, I had to learn Bliss Symbols which saw me coming to grasp on 500 symbols when I was eight or nine years old. The symbols were on a board that I pointed to with my finger. Every sentence was a series of symbols that had its own grammar – nouns, verbs, prepositions, conjunctions, etc.
If a word was not on the board, I could join two word meanings together or point out letters of the alphabet. It provided me a springboard for the various communication systems I have used to negotiate my voice in able-bodied society.
As soon as I landed, the conference was in action already with pre-conference seminars. The lecture was done by an Australian centre on cerebral palsy, and they took on the slant on the condition being asymmetrical and that the body lacked coordination and balance. This imbalance is the consequence of that there is a message misinterpretation between the brain and the body.
The majority of AAC users have cerebral palsy, but there are other disabilities also. In spite of having some effects of your life seen under the microscope, it made me start seeing my disability in a different way.
The conference opened with a musical performance. The piece was synthetic guitar with different sounds like beeps, horns and speech done by AAC users. The precision of the music was executed by the players despite their disability. I have given a few similar performances beforehand in order to promote eye controlled technology.
I press a switch under my chin to type what I say on a laptop today, remembering the days when I finger typed as a child. It was before I developed scoliosis from the twisting of my back in secondary school. Secondary school was mainstream where I had very limited access to specialised services.
After speeches from local Catalan government representatives and others, the lecture rooms quickly filled up and emptied like hives. Every talk was 40 minutes and there were seven papers delivered simultaneously. There was a problem with the paper schedule in that the times and titles were not clearly shown.
So the hives buzzed for four days. The talks included the sentence structuring in AAC – different models, surveys examining relationships within families with users, and a couple of user forums. The sentence structuring in AAC also incorporated how much the language of users was dependent in their voice systems in terms of idea formation and expression. Accordingly, Minspeak has taken over from Bliss Symbols today as a symbolic syntax.
In one user forum, the opening question of whether disability was too much for people in their lives generally broke the proverbial ice – but not for me. It was as stark as night. Clearly, I was rediscovering the environment so it was a culture shock.
Eye controlled technology or what is known eye gaze is a recent enough breakthrough and it was the subject of some talks. It has seen a changeover to the communication method from using a switch, and in some instances, from not being able to find an output at all. It is said that eye gaze can be five times faster than pressing on a switch.
However, back at the forum, the other query of whether people felt frustrated, in that talking was more laborious and slower, was asked to which I gave “yes, I generally ignore it”. The lighthearted answer got some laughter, but it got afterthought as well.
Seeing several users using eye gaze and head pointing, where the user aims an infrared beam at a screen board, brought me to perceive other modes of talking. I have carried out testimonies of a variety of systems, but I have not been able to choose one. Between regaining control of my right hand and the big expense in purchasing a computer, I am in no-mans-land.
I was absolutely delighted to see well-renowned GDIL activist and poet Mairead Manton to be my Irish counterpart despite some professional workers. It made you to say to yourself that language constituted community.
ISAAC Barcelona brought me to further realize my own difficulties and to point me in the right direction of finding solutions. Using a switch under my chin has served me well until this stage in my life, albeit I look on it as a security-blanket. I have referred to my chin switch as being mechanical and to the eye gaze as fluent. Seeing people using their own systems brought home the notion to use whatever way possible in your capacity.
Obviously, there was an overwhelming sense of clinical professionalism, but isn’t that where life in these kind of shoes starts out from? I met a load of fellow AAC users from across the world – European, American, Australian, and even a family from Japan!
I asked how many ISAAC conferences they attended – to which five or six was the response. It was actually my first… Pittsburgh 2012 – here I come! (with a bit of money and luck)
Over the years, I have had over 20 Spanish Personal Assistants working for me. They had me visiting them in their own country and I even found myself being loosely engaged in many a Spanish conversation.
ISAAC Barcelona was like a coming home for me with a new voice
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Post 1
Post 1
It's been more than a week since I got my new electric chair, and I feel I am embarking into a new chapter of life. I lost hand control twenty years ago and I got it back last week. Up until then, I operated an outmoded chair with a switch under my chin - and that was a long and tedious procedure.
However, the driver who once refered to himself in childhood as Street-Hawk is returned at long last. Yes - gaining control of one of your arms can be compared to an octopus regaining use of its tentacles - or more adequately - a bird finding power in its wings.
They have put me in slow gear. It's for a month's trial to see if I am capable. I have been moving around my flat and my bad garden. I have made it up to my shopping centre twice and went up the bridge to the DART station. I have had pain in my shoulder and wrist initially but it's gradually subsiding.
Over and out
JS
It's been more than a week since I got my new electric chair, and I feel I am embarking into a new chapter of life. I lost hand control twenty years ago and I got it back last week. Up until then, I operated an outmoded chair with a switch under my chin - and that was a long and tedious procedure.
However, the driver who once refered to himself in childhood as Street-Hawk is returned at long last. Yes - gaining control of one of your arms can be compared to an octopus regaining use of its tentacles - or more adequately - a bird finding power in its wings.
They have put me in slow gear. It's for a month's trial to see if I am capable. I have been moving around my flat and my bad garden. I have made it up to my shopping centre twice and went up the bridge to the DART station. I have had pain in my shoulder and wrist initially but it's gradually subsiding.
Over and out
JS
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