Researchers have even adapted the technology to control a robot arm. Eventually, investigators are hopeful the software can be applied to wireless home automation devices.
Blimes expect the vocal joystick to be available for downloading by June 2008. He says the technology could be used by just about anyone, as long as they can make vocal sounds. The only extra hardware required is a microphone and sound card. For more information go to
http://ssli.ee.washington.edu/vj/.
BROKEN BACK CAN LEAVE
YOU
HOMELESS
A television presenter who broke her back says many people with similar injuries are being forced to live in care homes.
Victoria Hollingsworth shattered her spine in a car accident while filming Channel 4’s property programme A Place in the Sun in Spain.
She has now made a report for Radio 4’s You and Yours programme about patients who cannot return home because their properties are not suitable for wheelchairs.
The accident three years ago left Victoria with five broken ribs, a punctured lung and a spine shattered in three places. Victoria, who lives in London, said: “The doctors informed my distraught parents that there was a good chance I would be paralyzed. However, after nine hours of surgery my broken Vertebrae were replaced by metal rods and screws and miraculously I re-learnt to walk and returned to presenting three months later.
But Victoria says many patients cannot go back to their homes due to the lack of wheelchair access and have to be housed elsewhere.
She said, “I know of a girl around my age who was paralyzed following an accident and had to live in an old people’s home for 18 months. Can you imagine your state of mind—coming to terms with life in a wheelchair and having to do that surrounded by people four times your age?
“There is also the story of a man who was a new father immediately prior to his accident. His counsel housed him in a hotel and he rarely got to see his wife and baby. She worked full time and he couldn’t afford to eat in the hotel so he had to rely on eating take-away food as he had no access to the kitchen.”
Every year in Great Britain around 1,000 people sustain a spinal cord injury, according to the
Spinal Injuries Association (SIA). (editor’s note: this is probably not the same stat for the U.S.)
Aspire, a charity which helps people with spinal injuries, says around two thirds of people could face housing problems after spending between six and 18 months in a spinal centre.
Research carried out by the charity at one spinal centre revealed that over an 18 month period only 39% of people who were discharged were able to go back to a home which had been adapted.
One in three went home to houses which still had not been adapted, which meant sleeping in the living room because of lack of upstairs access, and 20% had to go to care homes or other hospital departments.
The number of people with spinal injuries is increasing, partly because advances in medicine mean there is a better survival rate.
The Department for Communities and Local Government said it is providing more support for measures designed to help people live independently in their own homes. It also said government funding for home adaptations such as wheelchair ramps has doubled since 1997.
Victoria’s report can be heard on BBC Radio 4’s You and Yours programme on 27 March between 1200 and 1300.
Editorial comment: Searching Google did not render any comparable reports of individuals with spinal cord injury becoming homeless in the United States as a result of inaccessible housing. However, there were a number of articles touting nursing homes and homeless shelters as being a viable source of “housing” for those with SCI. I also found several brief mentions of Rehabilitation centers that keep a list of homeless shelters for patients with inaccessible homes.
