Chapter 10
It was a chill of an early evening fall day my young life took on a new way I had to use technology which transform my total dependency towards it because I became a quadriplegic that left me unable to communicate with the outside world. Not only did I have to gain some movement back but I had to learn a whole new way to communicate..
My days turned into months
being bed ridden most of the time and I slowly gaining control of the only movement I had, my thumb.
This movement played a major role for communicating by using a
computer. With all the computer devices
designed speech impairments, I chose the Dynavox because
it was able to adapt with my slowly improving motor skills towards my growing
communication abilities.
Since I gain thumb movement, I was able to hold onto a round button which allowed me to scan and choose letters displayed on my Dynavox in a QWERTY formatted screen. By being able to do this, I was able to spell words that formed to make a complete sentence and I was able to make my Dynavox playback to speak out loud that sentences keeping it displayed on the screen. The computer voice I chose for my machine could not be understood by some people even if it was repeated so the it had to be read. Now that my thumb was able to make the movements north, south, east and west, I am graduated to a joystick that allowed me to move more freely scanning letters on the LCD screen and choosing them by pressing a button conveniently surrounded by the north, south, east and west buttons...
Months later I graduated me to choose the letters showing on a LCD screen and just by touching the slippery surface from using the eraser at the end of a pencil to type allowing me not to slide as I stroked. The problem I was constantly having is dropping and my uncontrollable grip strength I gained at the right arm; kept breaking the wooden pencil while typing on screen. Solving this miner problem, I had an 8 inch piece of string connecting my stick to my Dynavox. This helped in preventing me from loosing my stick in addition always being in my reach. I said stick because I went to a local lumber yard to purchase a 24 inch long ¾ inch in diameter oak dowel putting on a ¾ inch rubber end cap in place of that rubber eraser.
Authors note: This way of communicating for me was t much quicker but my movement was extremely slow also making mistakes in spelling causing people to be impatient and walk away.
Nights turned into days and before I new it or realized this;
the years pasted by. My
strokes confine me to a wheelchair with quadriplegia unable to verbalize to
speak about the many memories I encountered and opinions about current events at a stressful
halt. I beat the odds to this
speechless problem by learning how to use today’s technology to win but with a
stressful struggle. The years that
past has started to pave a new road to more advanced technologies that help improve
my new way to exceed forward on my journey to the unknown.
A small piece of technology by Dynavox helped me open up a whole new way to communicate. In fact, it helped me advance to a real desktop computer. My first computer was donated instead of being part of a computer grave yard of outdated technologies. All I knew how to do is play games, like Hangman and Wheel of Fortune because it required the letters on the computer keyboard to play. Here is that desktop computer, all I knew how to do was play games. Being, it is setup on the dinning room table, the computer monitor and keyboard had to be position just right so I can operate it.
Glad I still had my Dynavox to play with until I was made
aware to me there are handicap features on desktop computers.
I am now a one handed typer do to left arm never gained mobility but my
right arm maneuvered just good enough to operate the computer’s handicap
features; allowing me to mouse around the desktop computer.
This feature enabled and allowed me to operate the keyboard's
mouse pad using the stick from my Dynavox to operate. Now
that I can explore my computer, without realizing the word program I was
teaching myself was Microsoft Word. I
used this word program to experiment in it and as a result writing my first
story about night fishing for bullhead calling this masterpiece “Midnight
Special”.
Authors
note: My
dad at the time was the editor of the
Learning my way around a computer, I made a lot of mistakes
from my disabled right arm and its fingers.
Because of these countless mistakes, they proved responsible for putting
me in areas I didn’t belong. These
places I did not belong mistakenly helped me learn in ways that helped me edit
and format my short stories. Learning
from these mistakes put me in a fascination with the computer.
All the time I spent on my computer, allowed me to use it in ways my Dynavox could not be accomplish. A local Red Lobster restaurant donated a desktop computer. Moving the new computer off the dinning room table and putting onto a desk made for computers but they were not manufactured to accommodate wheelchairs. My interest and experiences in woodwork before my stroke gave me an idea to design on my Dynavox a desktop computer desk to fit and to accommodate my wheelchair.
Now that I
am able myself to drive my wheelchair under the desk I designed,
this allowed me to operate the computer keyboard and put me closer to the
monitor without anyone’s assistance. This
break through allowed me to spend countless hours writing short stories, playing
mind games, writing letters regarding issues of bad encounters and created a 10
page step by step guide to aid me. A
glide point mouse was another major accomplishment that drastically changed the
way I am able to utilize the computer to adapt to my disabilities.
The computer gained me knowledge and it's notice by my family so they surprised me by purchasing a bran new computer that was faster and had a modem. This modem allowed me to send and receive e-mail or browse the internet. If I wasn’t watching TV, I was on computer learning Microsoft Outlook, Word, Microsoft Power Point, Microsoft Microsoft Excel and Microsoft’s Publisher. I used a program called Lorenz Graft to do HTML to build my first Web Site.
I live alone and without knowing how to use technology this would not be
possible. I keep track of my own finances with on-line banking, record
transactions in my self designed Microsoft Excel program, use the telephone
through my laptop, keep in touch with family and friends using e-mail, socialize
with my neighbors, shop on-line. All of this plus owning my own transport van
with 24 hour care makes it possible to stay out of a nursing home. I utilize the
Internet to have a text reader read newspapers and keep in touch with other
survivors of stroke.
My dependency on technology is 100%. It all started back in 1993 when I had my
stroke. This little corner of the world honored me with a talking device
Dynavox. This technology put me on the road to recovery.
My first laptop was a Macintosh and I was anxious to use a United Cereable Palsy
Association Technology. This laptop is the perfect solution to the over sized
Dynavox because I am able to close the lid and drive my wheelchair under my desk
to position myself at my desktop without removing the laptop. When I was
building my personal web site my laptop was hardly used and having to use a
stick to type made it awkward to operate things on laptops, which made my
desktop my main headquarters for writing short stories.
The day came where I worked myself to a one handed typing using just my right
arm fingers to press down on my computer keyboard I retired my sticks. This did
not immediately cause me to increase my laptop use. In fact I bought a space
saver keyboard and it is half the size of a regular keyboard. This made it easy
for me to reach typing keys and I was also able to type quicker.
My desktop crashed in two months and I was forced to use my laptop. It took me a
week to realize the laptop is the best thing since pockets on a shirt. I was
doing all the things my desktop accomplished and this technology allowed me to
communicate while in my wheelchair. Then a very tragic event happened. I was
using my laptop outdoors and it was dinner time. My computer was forgotten and
left outside all night in the rain.
 |
When it rains, it pours, because trying to get a Macintosh repaired was next to impossible but a PC was no problem. The light started to shine when the news came about getting a new laptop. This time I ordered a PC, since it was a piece of technology everyone and their brother repaired. Two weeks later, before the arrival of my new Compaq Presario laptop, my desktop computer crashed. This turned out to be a nightmare because I could not retrieve all HTML necessary for my website. I learned a new HTML program called Microsoft FrontPage. |
It's two years since the crash, and I have no plans of using anything but my
laptop. My Compaq laptop started giving me problems and a new laptop showed up.
Because wireless technology was available on my new laptop, I took advantage of
this convince.
I am currently Webmaster Assistant for The Stroke Network.
