iPad Helps Boy with Motor-Neuron Disease Communicate

[Maura]

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The New York Times has a really great story today about seven-year-old Owen Cain who has been left severely disabled by a motor-neuron disease that he has had since he was a baby. His breathing is aided by a respirator, and he finds it difficult to make even the slightest movements, and does not even have the strength to use a computer mouse, yet when a nurse placed her boyfriend’s iPad near to him in June of this year, Owen did something that completely amazed his mother – he pointed with his left finger at an icon on the iPad screen, just about managed to touch it, and opened Gravitarium, an app that plays music as you create landscapes of stars on the screen. According to the New York Times, Owen’s parents had tried many times to get him to use computerized devices, all to no avail, but the iPad was the first time it had ever worked.

“We have spent all this time keeping him alive, and now we owe him more than that,†his mother, Ellen Goldstein, told the Times. “I see his ability to communicate and to learn as a big part of that challenge – not all of it, but a big part of it. And so, that’s my responsibility.â€

Source: The New York Times

 

[Mikeb41g]

I read the article in the Times, and it was great in making the world aware of how iPad can help handicapped people.

Thanks for making the forum aware of it