newby looking to buy

SGMB

Member
Jun 11, 2011
4
0
Hi All
Just a mom probably out of her depth here but nevertheless, I'll do my best...
I am looking at an Android tablet for my 8yo son. He has very severe cerebral palsy so no independent movement and some vision issues. He currently uses foot switches (buttons) we hold under his feet to type in morse code, answer yes/no with voice output devices and a system called auditory scanning where he listens to choices by pushing through with one button and then selecting the choice with his other foot switch. He is a bright little kid with a really stuffed up body. Our goal is to explore the android devices to see if they will provide more functionality and portability than the other options out there. In Australia a dedicated communication device runs at about $15,000 AUD and it is only an xp tablet with software - pretty over the top.
We live regionally in Australia, have some technical capabilities and likely will have to learn how to make apps to suit us. I am about to start exploring the Emotive headset in the next month hopefully to see if we can get eeg headsets working to. Likely we will always need usb interfaces since wireless isn't yet proving to be failsafe for someone who can't rectify the problem without physical intervention.

Our son's school journey is at Inky Ed | inclusive education – nothing exceptional… it just is. if you are interested.
Cheers
Gina
We have a myriad of devices/computers etc kicking around the house so can be flexible with options/choices etc not too precious about brands etc.
 

Spider

Administrator
Staff member
Mar 24, 2011
15,785
1,813
Welcome to the forum Gina. If you run into any technical problems, post your questions here and we'll try to help.
 

SGMB

Member
Jun 11, 2011
4
0
Thanks @Spider. Will do. While I think what we are trying to do SOUNDS really complicated my gut feeling is that the 'switches' we use really just emulate keystrokes or macros via a switch press in each application. So hoping I can get someway along the path.
 
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