Sunday, December 05, 1999
Equipment could ease communication for palsy patients
BY SUE MACDONALD
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Using a headstick to manipulate the trackball on her computer is agonizingly slow and difficult for Christine Riley, 7.
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The “high-tech devices” that Christine Riley, Robert Stratton and Ron Flowers use to stay connected with the world are not things of beauty.
• Eight-year-old old Christine, paralyzed from the shoulders down from a spinal infection that struck when she was 8 months old, uses a headset that's jury-rigged with a coat hanger to help her push buttons on her home computer. The Mount Airy girl is a first-grader at Roselawn-Condon School.
• A wad of electrical tape and an old twisted-up coat-hanger grace the helmet-like headset that Mr. Stratton, 33, uses to point a stick at his computer keyboard. One of the leather helmet straps is broken, forcing it to hang over the keyboard at an odd angle.
• The mouth stick that Mr. Flowers, 45, uses to learn numbers and letters on his computer is wrapped at the end with masking tape for greater keyboard traction. Unable to speak, he's been a cerebral palsy client at the United Cerebral Palsy Rendigs Center in Avondale for more than 20 years.
Robert Stratton and Ron Flowers need new computer input hardware to replace the worn-out headsticks and mouthsticks they now use.
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“It's basically unusuable,” Pam Rieke says of Mr. Stratton's bedraggled helmet. She's business skills manager at the Rendigs Center, where Mr. Stratton has been a client for several years.
“You got that right,” chimes in a dry-witted Mr. Stratton as he types an e-mail greeting, one laborious letter at a time, using a makeshift mouse operated by his foot.
Their disabilities make it hard for all three to speak clearly, control their muscles or use their hands. And all three need basic tools that will allow them to use a computer to write, communicate and in Mr. Flowers' case, speak for the first time in his life using a speech synthesizer.
All are on limited incomes. Mr. Stratton lives in Florence, and Mr. Flowers lives with his father in Avondale; they attend the Rendigs Center three days a week. Their Medicaid or health plans won't pay for the devices because they're not “medically necessary.”
Mr. Stratton needs a new head stick, Mr. Flowers needs a new mouth stick, and Christine needs a new mouth joystick and software to allow her to use an on-screen keyboard.
Introduction to the Wish List
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How the Wish List works
Their wishes came true: 1998 recipients
Equipment could ease communication for palsy patients
Single father of two ill children needs appliances, furniture
Computer would offer gift of voice
Mom needs a safe place to sleep for her daughter
Blind college student needs devices, special software
Home needs to be wheelchair equipped
Hospital bed can add to independence
Lift chair can make standing easier
Ky. man's smile might shine more brightly
Scooter would give Avondale man new freedom
Computer could help mother helpo her children
Reading machine would open world
