Ideas to improve every day life

General points
Wheelchair choice
Washing up
Chair changing
Nights
Bedsores
Travelling
Communication
Physical therapy
Calling
Communication

I have three systems to communicate. The fastest is a language that I made with a speech therapist, and in which each phoneme has a sign made with my eyes and eyebrows. For those who do not know that language, I have a cardboard panel of phonemes, divided in two parts and then in lines and columns. I start by choosing the right or the left side, and then the line, and the phoneme on that line. It is much faster to speak with phonemes than simple letters. The phonemes of English language can be found on web sites, such as :

http://www.auburn.edu/~murraba/spellings.html

or

http://developer.apple.com/documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/SpeechSynthesis

ProgrammingGuide/Phonemes/chapter_952_section_1.html

but I guess that, to make it faster, you can simplify and just keep a panel like this one :

ay

a

b

k

d

ee

e

f

g

h

I

i

j

l

m

n

ow

o

p

kw

r

s

t

ew

v

w

ks/gz

y

z

oo

oy

aw

ar

sh

ch

th

ng

%

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

Where % is to say that you change word.

 

The third system is a computer, a Macintosh with a scanning software which puts itself before every other software. That software is now SwitchXS, after having used Discover for many years.

http://www.assistiveware.com/download.php

The great advantage of SwitchXS, is that you can make your own scanning panels, according to your needs. To activate scanning, I have a switch. At the begging it was a tongue bought at :

http://www.cree.fr

but later on, when I could no longer turn my head, I had a muscular switch (7N93), bought on :

http://www.proteor.com/proteor/uk/ht/index_cata.htm

that Bernard sticks on my cheek, and that I activate by little jaw movements.