From: xxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:xxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Alisa Brownlee
Sent: Wednesday, January 26, 2011 7:37 AM
To: National ALS Association AT Listserv
Subject: AT non-als question

Hello all,

Anyone have any ideas on helping this person? 

I'm a special education teacher in Harlem, New York, and I'm used to
dealing with students with pretty serious cognitive delays. My friend
is a professional accountant and he is about to have his jaw wired
shut for 6 months to fix some chronic and astounding jaw pain. He
needs an adapted keyboard with a text-to-speech output. His IQ goes
well above genius (probably 150-170), and he'd like to keep working
with clients. He has no physio-motor impairments to speak of. To keep
working, the voice has to sound real and the rig needs to be portable
and somewhat unobtrusive (no Dynavox slung around the neck with a
yellow strap). Further, he needs some input system that moves faster
than he can currently type on a standard computer keyboard (70 words
per minute). He expressed that the speed of slowish speech (110-170
words per minute) should be adequate. Perhaps some phonetic system?
I'm thinking of something akin to court stenography, but smaller and
not taking three years to learn.

Alisa Brownlee, ATP

Clinical Manager, Assistive Technology Services

ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease) Association National Office

 and Greater Philadelphia Chapter

Direct Phone: 215-631-1877