Enabling+Dreams

Assitive technology makes life easier for most Americans, but a for thousands like my daughter it means independence.

I use assistive technology every day beginning with my wake up call. Each morning the alarm clock on my cell phone wakes me up, and then I stand on my backporch and check my email from my phone while my dogs are out. My phone has replaced the AT I used to use, a radio/alarm clock and my land based computer. I use a wonderful piece of AT everyday called a car that allows me to travel 30 miles to work in 30 minutes. If we go back in time 100 years, I would not have my job becuase it would take my days by horse back and boat to get from my house to work. The assitive technology that I have mentioned all make my life and that of the average American much easier.

Now, I would like to focus on my daughter. She is an 8 year old with a nueromuscular disorder known as spinal muscular atrophy. She began using "official" assitive technology when she was one year old with the delivery of her first standing frame. For the first time in her life, she was eye level with other toddlers, could move around our kitchen independently, and could get into the mischief she must have been plotting for months. Over the course of the last seven years, I have become very familiar with the types of assitive technology availble to people with disabilties. To address my daughter's physical needs she has graduated from a manual standing frame and manual wheelchair to a power standing frame and power wheelchair. She gained some independence when she had her manaul equipment, but it is the power equipment that has given her true independence. She can now drive on any surface (including carpet and gravel driveways) and go anywhere she wants. We also have two different kinds of reachers, we are on our second shower chair that used to be a kids lawnchair, and have ramps off the back and front doors of the house. With the addition of the power wheelchair, we had to purchase a rampvan that comes complete with kneeling chain and floor lockdown system. When she is an adult, handcontrols can be added so that she can drive herself. Have you ever seen a child that is "well" turn blue while sleeping? There is AT to take care of this too! Thanks to two machines called a bipap and a pulseoximeter, we can both sleep again. The bipap assists my daughter's breathing and the pulseoximeter alarm goes off when her oxygen stats go below the acceptable range set by her doctor. We also have a machine called a cough assist that keeps her lungs clear by allowing her to cough, something that she can no longer do on her own. A suction machine helps with getting rid of the things the cough assist brings up. All of these things keep my daughter's lungs in tip-top shape and keep her healthy. Assistive respiratory technology is the only reason that my daughter is alive today. Assitive technology makes life easier for most of us, but it is the independence that it brings that is the true beauty of AT.

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The video Enabling Dreams is amazing. My first reaction to this video is that I need to move to Washington, then I thought why don't we have this type of assitive technology program in Southern Indiana or Kentucky? This video shows that anything is possible with assistive technology, including living independently or semi-independently. I would love to have the opportunity to try out technology with a student until something was found that worked like the preschool featured in the video. This would be so powerful. I find it very sad that schools do not have the money to put into the technology described in this video.