Technology-aided programs for assisting communication and leisure engagement of persons with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: two single-case studies.

Technology-aided programs for assisting communication and leisure engagement were assessed in single-case studies involving two men with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Study I involved a 51-year-old man with a virtually total loss of his motor repertoire and assessed a technology-aided program aimed at enabling him to (a) write and send out text messages and have incoming messages read to him and (b) establish videophone connections with his children (i.e.

A technology-aided program to support leisure engagement and communication by a man with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

Objective: To assess a technology-aided programme for promoting leisure engagement and communication in a man with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

Method: The programme involved a laptop computer equipped with a Clicker 5 software package, an optic microswitch and an interface device. The participant could choose between two leisure options (i.

Technology-assisted programmes to promote leisure engagement in persons with acquired brain injury and profound multiple disabilities: two case studies.

OBJECTIVE. To evaluate technology-assisted programmes for enabling a woman and a man with brain injury and profound multiple disabilities to acquire leisure engagement. METHOD.

Post-coma persons with extensive multiple disabilities use microswitch technology to access selected stimulus events or operate a radio device.

The present two studies extended research evidence on the use of microswitch technology by post-coma persons with multiple disabilities. Specifically, Study I examined whether three adults with a diagnosis of minimally conscious state and multiple disabilities could use microswitches as tools to access brief, selected stimulus events. Study II assessed whether an adult, who had emerged from a minimally conscious state but was affected by multiple disabilities, could manage the use of a radio device via a microswitch-aided program.