Communicating with Handicapped Loved Ones?

Trx asks: "Many of us regularly exchange digital images from our loved ones, but the disabled are often left on the dark side of this digital divide. My dad is quadriplegic, and I've been looking into ways I might outfit his room with an automated download of images to his television. Have any Slashdot users attempt something of this sort? He lives in an assisted living facility, with personal telephone/cable lines. He has special response buttons for control of television channels and phone. Due to high staff-turnover, training-in staff to help him download emails or images hasn't worked out. I am stationed overseas, and can only get back once every 6 months if I'm lucky, so low-maintenance is key. WebTV would be an option if it didn't require mouse or keyboard. We've also considered investing in a laptop DVD player, and mailing disks. Any suggestions?"

Comments

Digital Picture Frame

[MBCook]

I think a digital picture frame is your best bet. While the larget ones are expensive (ouch), you could build your own larger one out of an old laptop or something much cheaper. Then you just have it automatically dial in (or use high speed internet if that's an option) and download pictures off a FTP server (or some such) somewhere every night. When you want to give him a new picutre, just upload it to the server. Then the next day it will automatically be one of the ones in the slide show. No controlls, no nothing. Just a static object in the room that doesn't require any interaction that does exactly what you want easily.

Now if you wanted to give him some controll (forward, back, pause, etc) that could be much trickier. The best I can think of off the top of my head (and this wouldn't be too easy) would be to set it up with a microphone and teach it to listen for whistles or some such. One quick whistle is stop, two is forward, etc. Or you could use different pitches (A is stop, B is forward, etc). That would be easy to controll once he got the hang of it and would require no controll device, wouldn't have to be rigged into the ones currently provided, etc.

Of course that assumes he knows how to whisle. He does know how to whistle doesn't he? He just puts his lips together and... sorry, couldn't resist.

More info, please

[plsuh]

Sounds like an interesting situation, but a little more information would be useful:

• You imply that he has some ability to press buttons for changing channels, etc. Can he handle a mouth- or tongue-joystick device? If so, you have many more options since he has the equivalent of a computer mouse.
• How tech savvy is your dad? If you give him access to a full-blown computer, can he deal with it?
• What kind of local tech support can you hire/barter for/guilt into helping when you're not there -- buddies, cousins, etc.? And what kind of skill set do they have?
• You stated that he has his own "personal telephone/cable lines". Does he have a cable modem as well? If not, does he have a second line to use for dial-up access?

Without this information (and possibly more) it's kinda hard to say what would be best for you and your father. One thing you might want to look into is the new Mac mini since you can easily add S-video output to his TV and Mac OS X requires a lot less upkeep than Windows.

--Paul

Closing the Gap

[Anonymous Coward]

In the 1980's I worked on 'adaptive devices' for the handicapped. Many of the suggestions I see here are great, but I know there is 'old tech' out there that will help. There was, and may still be, an outfit in Stout-Meninomee (sp) Wisconson that published "Closing the Gap', a journal dedicated to the handicapped and adaptive tech. If you look around, there are many specialized devices that will allow a quadraplegic to operate a PC- puff switches, eye trackers, nod switches, voice activated controls, and the like. You might be suprised at how well a trained dictation program coupled with a set of scripts can run a menu. I have to believe that if we could do it with a Apple ][ and 48k of RAM, it's still do-able . I would suggest that you stay away from the bleeding edge, and stick with the less sexy but bulletproof stuff.