Accessible gadgets, gaming, apps, Eye Gaze, Dragon Dictation, Tecla,

Today I have taken a trip over to Edinburgh to attend the DMD Pathfinders groups tech conference in collaboration with “The Eileen McCallum Trust” Been a really informative day already. From apps to eye gaze tech. Plus some really innovative gaming solutions.

https://dmdpathfinders.org.uk/ DMD Pathfinders is the only user lead group in the Uk set up and run by Duchenne MD guys.
“”We set up DMD Pathfinders, a user-led organisation to promote choice, control and quality of life for teenagers and adults with DMD in the UK. We campaign for improved standards of health and social care . We also provide advice, guidance and support to teenagers and adults with DMD on issues such as independent living, housing, employment and welfare rights”” Anyone with DMD please have a look at https://dmdpathfinders.org.uk a valuable source of info and community

http://www.eileenmccallumtrust.org/ The Eileen McCallum (my fav character from Take the High Road) is a Scottish based charity Funding and supporting Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. The Trust is a family supported trust raising funds and awareness to improve the lives of males with DMD in Scotland. offering grants for equipment, tech and even WAV down payments.

Will pop more info up on the companies later

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/dragon-dictation/id341446764?mt=8
Description
Dragon Dictation is an easy-to-use voice recognition application powered by Dragon® NaturallySpeaking® that allows you to easily speak and instantly see your text or email messages. In fact, it’s up to five (5) times faster than typing on the keyboard.

http://gettecla.com/

Access technology hands-free. Tecla is a portable assistive device for people with disabilities. This allow you to control your Ipod/ipad or phone from a small control mounted on your chair. can also work with chin control or other device. http://gettecla.com/products/tecla-shield seen a demo of this gadget today fully operating an ipad.

Call Scotland contributed on the day and demonstrated the Dragon verbal dictation app above. Call Scotland Specialists in School age up to age of 18 to enable people in an Education setting to reach their potential vial assistive tech and the support needed for teaching staff there after. One example on the day being an audio link that teacher wears so all verbal dialogue is displayed on the users PC. http://www.callscotland.org.uk/home/ they also spoke about Siri on the day http://www.callscotland.org.uk/common-assets/cm-files/files/info-cards/using-siri-speech-recognition.pdf.

Another demo CALL Scotland did was EYE gaze something we have talked about a few times on the forum and was really exciting to see it live and and in use. Eye track or Eye gaze is a device that sits under your display unit. user can control the mouse with eyes. http://www.callscotland.org.uk/information/eye-gaze/

SMART stands for South-east Mobility and Rehabilitation Technology and operates out of the custom-built SMART Centre at Astley Ainslie Hospital. http://www.smart.scot.nhs.uk/ Although this unit of the NHS only covers the NHS I was fairly surprised that it was NHS that could supply the Assistive tech. The Rep from SMART on the day advised other areas to contact their own Occupational Therapist for Regional information and help. On the day among other things they demonstrated using different forms of interface to control environmental controls. eg Lights, TV, and indicated even the possibility of opening doors and windows via a central remote system.

http://www.possum.co.uk/ home alert call system

http://www.lepmis.co.uk/ Gaming. ran out of time to see the kit work on the playstation but really interesting presentation and one to one chat with Geoff from Lepmis. From the slightest finger prob requiring the slightest movement, a headset motion censor to make the character in the game move. also head and feet switch buttons that again require minimal movement. Based in Nottingham but will travel at cost.

http://www.flextension.nl/en/ body robotics:- Flextension is an initiative of the Dutch Duchenne Parent Project. The Flextension initiative was started in 2007, as response to the demand from the Duchenne community to find technological solutions for boys and young men with Duchenne muscular dystrophy to improve their quality of life.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5M2M_Ye61F0

some more links:-

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCydaubYIt9jAX-Gb7jeS-6Q
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sYFasIrNeU (playing Pokemon go)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuqoZkZ-fVM (making a call using Tecla)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9t6GQ_WfSco (hands free access to iphone and tablets)