Making life easier for people with disabilities

By TOM OWEN

Courier Staff Writer

WATERLOO

At 17 years old, Ken Kendall was driving when his car's tires slipped on loose gravel and sent him flying. The accident left him paralyzed from the neck down, wondering if he could ever enjoy life again.

Eleven years later, Kendall lives at Harmony House, a long-term rehabilitation center for people with brain injuries or strokes. But his future is full of possibilities thanks to technological advances making life easier for many people with disabilities.

"I've got a life outside this place," Kendall says.

The array of assistive devices for people with disabilities has grown sharply in recent years. According to the Iowa Program for Assistive Technology, companies make thousands of types of such equipment, helping with anything from communicating to gardening, to hunting, or even driving.

The devices range in cost from less than $100 to $10,000 or more. If the consumer's insurance can't cover it, Medicaid or Medicare often will. Service organizations such as Sertoma sometimes help, also.

"Funding is a challenge, but there are good resources out there, and people in the business do all they can to come up with it," says Lynn Reed, a speech-language pathologist at Harmony House.

Kendall's road to more self-sufficiency began after his accident, when he learned to use a "sip and puff" mechanism to control his wheelchair.

By sipping or puffing on a tube, he sends electrical impulses to power his chair in any direction. He blows hard to go forward and sucks hard to go back. He blows softly to turn right, and sucks softly to turn left.

Kendall needed about three weeks to learn to drive.

"It's second nature now, just like anybody getting into a car and doing good defensive driving," he says.

New technology has changed his life in another way, too. During the past six months, Kendall has explored new worlds using voice recognition software called Dragon Dictate for Windows.

For years, Kendall used a stick in his mouth to slowly type commands into the computer.

Now, he speaks into a headset, and the software converts his words to text. He also uses his voice to navigate the Internet.

"I'm living on the computer," he says, spending six hours a day or more on the machine.

Kendall is so proficient on the computer he has a six-month consulting contract with a California company that produces ventilators like the one he uses. He hopes it leads to a full-time job.

Of course, unlike Kendall, many people can't speak, due to brain injuries or strokes.

But if they still have use of their hands, they may turn to "augmentative communication devices," which are among the most widely used forms of assistive technology. Such devices allow the person to type on a keyboard. As the words appear on a display screen, a voice synthesizer says them aloud.

Nine residents at Harmony House use augmentative communication devices, with great results, Reed says.

"We've seen people become much more social," she says. "Residents are interested in each other and in people outside the facility. Families are sometimes surprised at what they can do."

On a recent trip to the facility, residents showed off their communication skills.

Traino McCullum's brain injury left him unable to speak.

But he can type a message into the keyboard to display a message or save it for later. He also can tap an icon, or a series of icons, to produce a message.

If someone asks how he became injured - a common first question - he touches an icon and the visitor hears:

"I fell off a scaffolding while at my construction job. I do not remember anything from that day. I try to make fun of the situation by saying I fell off an ice cream truck."

One of McCullum's favorite pastimes is watching television news. He loves to type in a few lines about the top two stories, then go around the building, playing back the messages for fellow residents.

Down the hall from McCullum, Jan Peterson uses a communication device even though she can't move her hands, due to a stroke.

Peterson wears a headband that beams an infrared signal. By moving her head, she can direct the signal to various keys on her keyboard, typing a message. The message appears on the video screen, or as a synthesized voice. With help, she can use the device, called a Liberator, to send e-mail.

"Since I got my Liberator, life is much better," Danielson says.

Blind people are another group finding help from such devices. Despite the disability, Sally Ripplinger holds down a full-time job teaching independent living skills to clients at the Black Hawk Center for Independent Living.

For years, Ripplinger has taken down personal reminders or other information by making Braille characters with a stylus, a very slow process. Storing the notes was a task in itself.

"You had a lot of papers around," she says. "Things could get lost."

Three years ago, Ripplinger received a so-called Braille and Speak device -- priced at about $1,300 -- as a birthday gift.

Ripplinger types in everything from recipes to date book entries in Braille, and the device stores them electronically. Then, whenever she needs information, a voice synthesizer reads the information to her. The device even has a clock and a calculator.

Helpful as it is, the Braille and Speak has its weaknesses, Ripplinger says. The battery pack requires recharging every 20 hours. And she has to be careful not to let crumbs get inside the machine. That can cause big problems.

"You might as well say good-bye," she says.