PDAs for a Disabled Man?

Ed-Wars asks: "I work for a man who suffers from ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease) and is mostly paralyzed, including a very limited ability to speak. He is looking for a portable device with a keyboard which will allow him to communicate with others while he is away from home. Wish-list: cheap, good sized screen with highly visible lettering, large and widely spaced buttons, ability to store/retrieve commonly used statements. It doesn't need to be high-powered or have any fancy graphics, again cheap is important. Text-to-speech could be useful, but is not necessary. Any suggestions you could give would be very helpful. Thanks!"

Comments

difficult tradeoff

[passthecrackpipe]

I am somewhat involved in product development for portable machines for law-enforcement, so have a bit of an idea about what is what in portable land these days. First of all, "cheap" is a relative term - with these things, much like all else, you get what you pay for. If this would be your employers only reliable bridge with the outside world, I would have a good think about system criticality, and the relative worth of such.

Secondly, I assume from your question that you are looking for an off-the shelf solution in terms of software. There are plenty of off-the shelf systems that do TTS, but you may need to look at custom stuff, depending on the physical state and limitations of your employer.You may want to consider getting something done in-house, so to speak.

Hardware wise, in terms of form-factor, functionality and ruggedness, you may want to look at any of the current crop of handtops out there. However, they may be a bit expensive in terms of value for money. Tablet PC's are a bit expensive, and can be a bit fragile. They are also unwieldy. On the other hand, they give you a very good price/performance ratio, so could equate well in terms of value for money. Battery life may also be an issue. Finally, you can look at using wearable systems - they have come a long way, and with the right kind of setup, they can really be what you are looking for. From that link, you may want to look at the MA-TC system or the Xyberkids system. both have pro's and con's. However - they are really, really expensive - but I would probably go with the MA-TC platform, with a good HMD system.

Software wise, I would go with Linux as the core OS - can't beat value for money, stability, and software availability. I would combine that with Dasher for the input system, linked perhaps with Festival.

Also, to your employer: don't underestimate the value of working with professionals that know what they are talking about.

Muscular Dystrophy Association

[jetsfandb]

My mother-in-law's friend is also going through ALS currently and has the same issue. Apparently MDA provides a PDA with the features you mentioned to people with ALS. IANAD but I was told that ALS is a form of Muscular Dystrophy. I sorry that I cannot provide specs on hardware, but I recently threw out the paper it was on. If I locate the information I will reply to this post.

Re:Muscular Dystrophy Association

[jetsfandb]

Links for some devices

Why Reinvent the Wheel?

[Anonymous Coward]

This company:

http://www.dynavoxtech.com/

Provides ruggedized hardware with exactly the software you need, and their partner company:

http://www.enkidu.net/

provides software on standard hardware.

As far as price, there are organizations that can help out with funding, since these devices are medically necessary for their users.

Look into it. These can't be the only products in this space.

Requested software

[Anonymous Coward]

Knowing you will get a lot of responses I'll try to keep this short.

Since 1999 I've been part of a team that has been creating completely free software for people suffering from Aphasia, MS, ALS as well as Cerebral Palsy and other disabilities.

You can find our completely FREE software on: http://globability.org

The current version of what we like to refer to as our concept demo "T-Board the Virtual Keyboard", has been tried under DOS / WIN95 / WIN98 / WIN XP and under DOS emu in LINUX and has been found to run albeit with some tinkering needed at times.

All functions are available via 0/1 switch technology. (a joystick button / a keyboard tap or similar)

The software can run on machines as old as 80386 - new versions of this DOS based program will become available during this year as we are migrating towards full open source and dual Linux/Windows native support.

We would welcome collaboration with others in making the software available on any interesting devices.

You are most welcome to contact me for further information or for any other reason.

Best Regards

Einar Petersen, Project Manager

The Global Ability Initiative - http://globability.org

Look for Grants

[HowIsMyDriving?]

Medicaid and many other government programs will PAY IN FULL for a top of the line communication system for someone who is diagnosed with that condition. I work in the medical field, and have helped people get a machine like this. I would contact your local disability actvist center and ask them about grants and or programs to recive a computer. It might take 4-6 months, but it is free, and designed especially for them. Often times they will send someone out to help fit it and train the person when they get it. I am not really sure if a home made device is the way to go. Seeing how expensive and complex the devices are now days, and how well they work, try to help this person by weeding through the paper work to get a brand new one for them.

Re:I don't know his exact requirements, but...

[sakusha]

Has he considered a large binder full of tabbed pages with common phrases in it? At the front or back could be a notepad and a marker to write with.
The local ALS clinic showed my Mom a similar device. The booklet is about 18in by 2in, with a few dozen pages, each page has 5 or 6 squares with different phrases in big type. It clips on the top of a board with the alphabet printed on it, so you can point to letters to spell out words. The little booklet has tabs for common subjects, like food, medicines, how you feel, etc. and has a blank pages in each tabbed section so you can add your own phrases. It's simple to use, you just flip open the tab you want and point, then spell out extra words on the letter board for stuff that isn't in the booklet. The booklet's pages are all laminated plastic so you can write on it with a marker you can rub off and rewrite. You could easily make such a booklet on your own, just design some pages on the computer, take em to Kinkos to laminate and bind them in a plastic spiral binder. But a lot of professionals who specialize in assistive devices put a lot of thought into what kind of phrases are needed, so you'd probably be better off using one of the booklets that already exist. I mean, how expensive could it be? And Medicare would probably pay for it anyway.

Fortunately my Mom isn't so disabled that she needs this booklet gadget.. yet. But she's such a luddite, it's perfect for a technophobe like her. I'm sure she'll use this device eventually.