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Contributing
As I’ve grown up, I’ve felt this growing urge to contribute, to be an adult, to be responsible. I finished college and completed my Master’s degree and hit the terrifying world of job searching. As a disabled candidate, the market is somewhat limited.
First Words
We've been working with a new family. Billy had a brain-stem stroke back in December of 2010. His disability is so severe that none of our technology worked for him. I talked with our clinical experts and there doesn't appear to be any equipment available – anywhere – to help him. This guy is hard. Really hard.
Learning to be Strong
I’ve been watching Larry Bell’s Be Extraordinary video. In it he makes the comment “I’ve learned that I am stronger than I want to be”. That statement has been haunting me.
A Country as Rich as Ours
I’m not sure how many people realize this, but InvoTek does “real” research. We collaborate with research institutions around the country to develop new technologies for people with severe disabilities. We submit Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) proposals to the National Institutes of Health and compete nationally with other small businesses (companies with fewer than 500 employees) for grant funding.
Enjoying New Hobbies
I have many hobbies that I occupy myself with. Before I acquired my spinal cord injury, I liked fishing, hunting, coin collecting and stamp collecting. I can still do these, just have to do them very differently, but all with assistance and some only virtual reality wise.
Getting Setup to Use the Computer
I am a user of the AccuPoint head tracking hardware. I used AccuPointTW keyboard when I first started, but I currently am using AccuKeys. I go to college online at UALR working on my Master’s degree in Rehabilitation Counseling. AccuPoint and AccuKeys have made a huge impact on my abilities to get my assignments completed and being able to be a participant in chat rooms with both fellow students and professors. Another invaluable asset is using two monitors side by side to make it much easier to take notes and have references open when typing assignments.
Technology and the Future
My name is JJ. I have a C5 complete spinal cord injury. With todays technology/and the help of InvoTek, I can use my computer to its full capabilities and be able to go back to school. I think that with the way that technology is progressing that it should only be easier from here on for people with disabilities to use computers, go back to school, and just help with every day life etc.
From Pickin' Cotton to Speech Recognition
In my sixty-one years of life, I've seen a tremendous technology leap. As I was growing up on the farm, when I was eight years old, I picked cotton by hand. When I was fourteen, I picked cotton with a totally mechanized two row cotton picker. Also, when I was eight years old, I hoed cotton and soybeans to remove the weeds in the field - by the time I was fifteen I saw the development of herbicides to control weed growth, and later saw the development of engineered seeds that improved yield and allowed the use the Round-up to control weeds without hurting the crop.
Realistic Expectations
The first time people hear about InvoTek technologies their eyes usually light up. Initially they can’t believe a computer can be controlled without a keyboard and a mouse. The more they hear, the more obvious it is that access to a computer opens a world of opportunity. And it is true – sort of. Don’t get me wrong, technology holds a lot of promise for people with severe disability, but I see too many people fail to realize that promise. I think this is true for three main reasons:
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