Hi

Sounds on paper like a combination of eye-gaze and voice recognition 
might work well - though obviously depends on his speech.

I've had surprisingly good results with Dragon for what seems to be 
quite difficult speech to understand in the past, it just depends how 
consistent the speech is. It is possible to train up multiple profiles 
for the same user if the voice changes e.g. as the day progresses, plus 
the student being willing to accept there will be some training involved 
to get recognition levels to a reasonable level will help.

Haven't had a student with such severe dexterity problems for a while 
now. I've been meaning to check with someone like Inclusive as to how 
well their eye gaze system can integrate with Dragon, just to pre-empt 
in case someone does turn up who might need it:

http://www.inclusive.co.uk/articles/eye-gaze-say-it-with-your-eyes-a490

so would be interested to hear what you discover.

I recall ages ago a student had a joystick attached to his powered 
wheelchair that he could use to control a computer, using the scanning 
keyboard and word prediction, albeit very slow and frustrating. I think 
it was a Penny & Giles joystick tracker-type device. I seem to recall 
someone used to sell clamps and brackets designed for that purpose, 
though not sure who it was.

A compact wireless keyboard that can be placed in the lap or attached to 
the wheelchair might be accessible?

Those desk clamping ergo arm rests can be useful for students who may 
still need to access a desk-based keyboard from time to time but have 
involuntary spasms/movements of the hands and/or weakness in the arms.

Good luck!

Ian Francis







On 07/04/2017 1:00 PM, Elizabeth McGovern wrote:
> Hello,
>
>    I've got a student with Duchene muscular dystrophy for an assessment
> shortly.
>
>
>
> His medical evidence states that he has no power in his legs, little
> power in his arms and loosing power in his head. It states that he needs
> his hands placing on the keyboard to use the computer. It doesn't say
> how his voice is.
>
>
>
> I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions with AT solutions. I'll
> look into voice recognition with him but I have heard mixed things about
> eye gaze. Has anyone has any experience with students using this and how
> it went? Or any other suggestions ? Be good to hear if anyone has had
> anything similar  :-)
>
>
>
>   Thanks,
>
>      Best wishes
>
>        Liz
>