Freedom through a single switch: coping and communicating with artificial ventilation.
Challenging clients often stretch the limits of the imagination in terms of developing creative technologies to allow access to computers, communication devices and environmental controls. This paper provides a description of an innovative system that enables clients with motor neurone disease/amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (MND/ALS), on full ventilatory support and virtually no movement, to communicate and manipulate their environments, through the use of a myoelectrically controlled switch.
Gryfe
P
P
Assistive Technology Clinic, Sunnybrook Health Science Centre, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Kurtz
I
I
Gutmann
M
M
Laiken
G
G
D000690:Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis / Q000523:psychology*; D003143:Communication Devices for People with Disabilities; D004576:Electromyography; D006801:Humans; D009119:Muscle Contraction; D011788:Quality of Life; D012122:Ventilators, Mechanical