Assistive Technology Really Makes A Difference: Dustin’s Story

By Ricky Buchanan • January 22, 2008

The old rainbow coloured Apple logo I saw this great photo once in One GirlFriday’s blog:

Photo of a hardback blue school notebook with a large white sticker on it. The sticker has the old rainbow-apple Mac logo on it and the words: Changing the world, one person at a time.

When I asked her about it, this is what she told me about the photo:

That was a bumper sticker that Dustin had attached to his wheelchair when he was in kindergarten over 20 years ago. He then had an Apple IIe, Unicorn board, Adaptive Firmware card.

Dustin has severe cerebral palsy but was able to use this all if he sat on my lap and I controlled the [muscle] tone through his hips. Of course this didn’t work so well as he got bigger … we have tried it all, for a time morse working in three button, then direct selecting with headpointer.

The book in the photo is “My Trip to Space“.

Links added by me. The “My Trip to Space” link explains how Dustin wrote the book and how long it took - a very interesting blog post. The others are information about the various gadgets for those who are interested.

Girl Friday further writes:

Dustin has a new MacBook and is today typing with SwitchXS and doing pretty well with the inverse scan and two head switches. Up till this point he has not liked scanning at all and preferred to type with a head-pointer. This is clear but tricky as he often drops his head and crashes into the keyboard making it difficult to mount the keyboard. We are quite happy to be back in the Apple family after all these years.

Best of luck to Dustin and Girl Friday with your new MacBook adventures - let us know how you go. It’s always great to be reminded that this technology really can totally change people’s lives… even though I have every day revolutionised because I can use my computer for everything, I still forget how amazing it is sometimes. It’s easy to take for granted what’s all around us every day!

- Ricky Buchanan

Categories: AAC, Educators, Primary Switch Users, Supporters, User Stories, Users
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About the Author

Ricky Buchanan

Ricky Buchanan is 34 years old and the founder and main writer for ATMac. She's bedridden with severe CFS/ME or perhaps a primary mitochondrial disorder - the doctors are not sure. When she's not working on ATMac or her other websites she composes music, listens to audio books, does other disability advocacy, watches TV with her flatmate, and enjoys her cat.

One Comment For “Assistive Technology Really Makes A Difference: Dustin’s Story”

Joe Apr 6th, 2009 at 8:46 pm

True, technology can change people’s lives for better. One of my friend who is handicapped uses voice commanded devices for almost all his needs which makes his life a bit easier.

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