Evolution of Assistive Technology

Technology. It's all around us. Throughout our day, we rely on devices and high tech to create, connect, and complete our daily tasks. But for some, technology is so much more and is essential for everyday living. Here are their stories. Is it good here? It looks grabby. It is grabby. We could do it less aggressive. My name is Taylor Danielson. I'm 27 years old. I have spinal muscular atrophy type three and I got my first power chair at age 18 months old. Quick open front door. What technology really means to me is having control over my own life and the direction it takes. Kitchen light on. I use technology from the moment I wake up to the moment I go to sleep at night. And I can't imagine growing up in an era where this technology was not readily available. And I know that many peers in the disability community, they grew up in eras where an electric wheelchair was unheard of. They grew up with wicker wheelchairs, and that was state of the art. Polio. It soon became one of the most feared diseases in the world. And by the mid20th century, the polio virus could be found around the globe. It is here that technology was developed out of necessity and survival. Races were common for polio survivors, along with advancements in wheelchairs and the commonly known iron lung. Parents lived in fear of polio's sudden attack and the tragic aftermath. There were many years of struggle and heartbreak. Google, turn on living room wall lamp. My name is Sasha Ettenberg. I was born in nineteen forty five and I had polio when I was 6 months old. There was an epidemic in town and so it was sort of obvious I was probably sick with polio. I never did learn to walk until I was 3. The technology that they had at that time was braces. They were heavy, clunky, Not comfortable to wear. You just learned to adapt because if you wanted to get from A to B, that was the only way to go. In those days, they had these wicker chairs. They were literally wicker chairs. They were not comfortable. They had no cushions and this sort of thing. They were manual chairs with hard tires. I think they're in museums now. The 19 eighties saw its fair share of breakthrough advancements and landmark tech, such as Microsoft Windows, Apple Macintosh, and of course, IBM's revolutionized personal computer. The introduction to lightweight materials transformed fixed framed wheelchairs, while power components were integrated into the frame of power chairs. Now this is a Philips Pronto and this was one of the original touchscreens. It's actually, this was the best touchscreen that was created way back when. My name is Roger Jones and I am a C56 quadriplegic or tetraplegic to say today, I guess. My injury was on the 8th of June, 19 85. So 37, 37 years now. My first wheelchair, yeah, I remember my first wheelchair. The typical power chair was a belt-driven Everston Jennings. They had the big wheels in the back and the small wheel in the front. There would be a belt going around the back wheel and connecting to the front wheels, you know, almost like a bicycle chain kind of idea. And when I saw that, I thought, wow, I don't want to use this thing. And it was a company called Fortress. And they just came up with the first, what they were calling, power-based wheelchair. As soon as I saw it, I thought, okay, that's the way to go. Now, unfortunately, the company hadn't designed them for someone of my age. stature, and the first motor only lasted a month. And the second motor lasted 2 months. So then I had to convince the company to sell me all their motors that they couldn't sell commercially, like maybe it was a little bit loud or something was wrong with it. And I kept that cheer going for several years, just swapping motors all the time. Oh, the first chair was the, yes, the Everston Jennings with rubber drive belts. The Everston Jennings would do 2 things, go forward and go backward. Yeah, my name is Terry LeBlanc. I've been in a chair since 19 78. It's 45 years now. Really hits home when you do the calculations. The technology we had was the TOSC, and that stands for Touch Operator Selecting Control. I used it to turn on my Selectric typewriter. Well, the first computer, it allowed me to work. It's hard to be conversational when you're sipping and puffing. Well, back then I would type with my left arm. I had a splint and a typing stick that inserted into it. I would have loved to have had a desktop computer, but they were to come not too many years later. The nineties, a precursor to much of the technology we use today. The rise of laptops and cell phones introduced us to a world of new and fascinating digital products. Traveling the world, however, was still void of easy internet access, GPS systems, and limited assistive technology. Accessibility was a long ways away, and most of the world was uneducated to people with disabilities. Yeah, in two thousand and ten, I summited Mount Everest to eighteen thousand five hundred feet and I can't even stand up. My name is Linda McGowan. I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 19 83. The first time I went to Nepal, a Sherpa carried me in a basket on his back to sixteen thousand feet. I have traveled on every continent in the world to more than one hundred and sixty countries, all of it in a wheelchair and much of it alone. Well, the first time I traveled to China, they didn't have an aisle chair. Originally, places I traveled, they weren't even familiar with what a wheelchair was. The first time I went to China, it wasn't acceptable for people with disabilities to be in the community. I saw one bamboo wheelchair the whole time I was there. There was no internet and there was no education when I first started No such thing as internet. When I first started to travel, I always did it. with a hard copy of a Lonely Planet guidebook. And the Lonely Planet book tells you about transportation, where to stay, high-end, middle-end, budget. Even though technology can evolve at a rapid pace, sometimes it can't move quick enough, forcing people living with a disability to innovate and design new devices to enhance quality of life and independence. There are a lot of us who have created stuff over the years out of necessity. But as far as, you know, the technology and how was I going to do it, it was a few things that was bothering me. One was going to the bathroom. I'd have to lean over, lift my leg, get it to a toilet, pull this ring. I practiced that thing for months and months and months because I wanted to work, right? So finally, I invented my own. I went out and I thought, OK, how do these things work and a bunch of research i came up with design and i built my own little leg bag which i've been using ever since so the last 3 years second thing was the computer system i had a dictaphone machine which i connected to my phone so i could record people when they called and then i could take notes afterwards i just listened to the recording that was the technology that got me to work Set entrance thermostat to 23 degrees. A lot of people would look at something simple like a light bulb or a smart plug as a frivolous convenience. But for people like me and other people with physical disabilities, they allow us to control just essential parts of our home. I'm sure many men over the years have tried to establish that fact that something so small is actually very big, but I'll try to do them justice. It's hard to put into words because it's so simple. It's something that people do by routine. Every morning, every day, you get your morning tea, your afternoon tea. But I couldn't do that. I didn't have that choice. It's options, it's choice, it's freedom, it's independence. Independence. decade, the evolution of technology has seen rapid growth and expansion. Because technology is developed to assist and improve all quality of life, it seems natural that the devices we enjoy today have been created for or by someone living with a disability. It comes as no surprise that innovations leading to accessibility and inclusion have become some of the most impressive technological developments in the last century. Google. Open the door. Did I just hear it start to rain? Yep. To allow me to live independently, one of the biggest things is the fact that I can drive my own van. I can open the door, wheel myself in, strap myself down, transfer, and drive off. And then I usually turn my chair around. Technology that has improved my life significantly, my wheelchair. Because polio is a systemic disease, so it affects all the muscles in your body, even though it looks like everything's fine, I'm moving my arms and stuff like that, but I have very little strength. If I had to wheel, the chair, I wouldn't go very far, let me tell you. It allows you to be on the same eye level as other people when you're talking to them, which is a minor thing, but over time, it becomes very important. Open sesame. Maybe the things I struggled with were what people take for granted, like opening the door. I developed so many systems over the years to open doors, from tying ropes to the side of the wall by the door and attaching it to the handle. So it's only the last few years that I actually got an automated door system that really works. And that probably is the one thing that makes you the most independent is just to be able to get in and open the door. So yeah, that was a big one for me. Yeah, being able to open the door is the, well, it's the first step reclaiming a bit of independence. If I had to distill it down to one device, it would be the Gava controller on the side of my chair. It is a programmable remote that you can put in practically any combination of codes that I even water my garden. Water my garden. Something went wrong with that one. Difficult technology thing. It was a puff on this and the receiver was below the button. And I select a roof, and there it lights up. The most important piece of technology for me that I use on a daily basis is Dragon NaturallySpeaking Voice Dictation. People often ask me where I traveled that I absolutely loved. I would say that Greece captured my heart. My book is called Traveling the World with MS in a Wheelchair. I was able to write it with Dragon Naturally Speaking Voice Dictation. My book is about 2 stories and anecdotes of traveling the world in a wheelchair. Technology in particular Dragon NaturallySpeaking, but other kinds of technology have allowed me to tell my story and motivate others to go out and reach out to the world and experience everything in their community that is possible. While advancements in assistive technology are important for everyday living, it also creates opportunity for someone to return to the activities they once loved. It's a competitive outlet on race days and other days. It's just great to leave the chair behind on the tarmac and you're sailing free. When I was in Nova Scotia, know, land of the scooter, I couldn't get out on a boat to save my life. When I came back to Vancouver, here was a sailing program that was all set up, even with a sip and puff. You sip the starboard puff to port when you want to let the sails out. It's a hard puff when you want to draw them in, it's a sip. It's just magical. That's a very liberating experience to have this boat go wherever you want, actually easier than the chair. Well, of course, the thing that I hope for is the cure, of course. Yeah, my hope is that they ultimately won't need wheelchairs in the future. Just leaving the wheelchair behind, it's freedom. Well, my hope for people in the future is that there's good publicity and good knowledge of technology that's available, that you don't have to search for it. More education for people with and without disabilities. Oftentimes, there's oftentimes this assumption that people with disabilities can't do something. Whereas with proper technology, quite often they can do the same. The problem with technology is the cost. Especially if you have a visible disability, you have to work twice as hard as someone without one to achieve the same kind of recognition, value for the work that you do. And so it becomes very difficult to obtain some of this technology because it's just so far out of price range. My hope for people with disabilities and their relationship with technology is that they are the innovators, because they always have been. A lot of stuff that's out there came either as a result of or because of people with disabilities. But we need to be the ones that are at the forefront, so people with disabilities need to be involved. They need the education, the experience, the opportunity to be the pioneers. When that happens, I think we're going to see a lot of change because there's a lot of brilliant people out there who just happen to have or are perceived to have a disability. Speaking with our senior peers is an amazing experience as I look at them as mentors and they teach me so much about how they paved the way for us and What's still left to do? Where do we need to go? Where do people like me need to lead the way for the next generation? It's just amazing to see them pick up smart plugs and smart light bulbs and door locks and just learn how to do it. It's an amazing piece of just perseverance and willingness to learn and adapt. And that's what it's always been about. And I look at the people that were before me and I call them the pioneers. And the things that they had to deal with is just to survive, right? I'm benefiting from their sacrifices. If technology had not evolved, it would have been a very different life this past 45 Quality of life with technology is an unbelievable gift. is like it's a weight taken off your shoulders or, you know, in the sense that to be able to sort of, I don't have to rely on myself to do this. I got technology that can do And those kind of things are huge because it allows you the freedom to do what you've been created to do. How far can we go in advancing assistive technology? What will the world look like a century from now? One thing is for certain, we could not have gotten this far without those who came before us.