Technology for Brain Injury Accommodations

Technology for Brain Injury Accommodations: Rita Part Sixteen

Rita’s mom and I discussed the need for more technology for brain Injury accommodations. Because of some of Rita’s deficits it make it hard to work with what is available.

Rita is not able to use the computer by herself?

Not yet, but I definitely think she’s going to be able to do it.  It’s just we, you know, the vision, having the right set up, I mean, you know.

Have you tried a bigger monitor?

I have. I’ve gotten a bigger keyboard is what I’ve gotten, you know, I tried to get it up on the TV but that was actually too far but she has a very hard time seeing it.  She can do the letters when you point it but it takes a long time.

She’s doing nothing by feel, where she can feel her way around a keyboard?

No.  No, no.  I don’t know.  I haven’t really tried that but, you know, it, it’s her doing that and then seeing the, the monitor, maybe the monitor is too small.

It would be interesting to try a touch screen interface like an iPad for technology for brain Injury accommodations.

I do have an iPad. You know what happens, she presses and it goes (a bit crazy).

It is too small?

Yeah.

I can’t type on that thing.

I know.  It’s hard to do.

At least it is seeing and touching.

I’m pretty sure she’s going to be able to do it’s just going to take a lot of work, you know, and we just, I guess can’t do everything.

For decades, our telecommunications industry has been in the business of making everything smaller. To a degree, the Ipad reversed that trend, because it upsized the IPhone, which was particularly important for both using it as a surrogate laptop and as a Kindle reading device.  What is needed fortechnology for brain Injury accommodations  is a further upsize, perhaps to the size of the LCD screen on the Macintosh 17” laptop.

I have given Apple and the internet many chops on these blogs, going back to our first interviewee, Angela. It would be nice for Apple to give something back to the disability community, with such a product for technology for brain Injury accommodations. While they certainly wouldn’t do it just for Rita, and probably not even just for TBI survivors, when the entire visually impaired community, which includes huge sections of the elderly is factored in, it might make economic sense. While heavier and not as portable, the ability to have a touch screen device, where those with poorer vision and hand eye coordination could interface easily with electronic and internet technologies, would be a major step forward.

Rita Concludes in Part Seventeen –  Every Day Renews Hope for the Future