Clare Holmes, a United Church minister, [retired in Lantzville and here with us today!] was a volunteer Chaplain at Anscomb House which is part of the Queen Alexandria Hospital in Victoria.Anscomb House is a residence for young people with Muscular Dystrophy. This disease sentences them to a life span of two or three years with gradually weakening muscles.
In 1985 the use of personal computers was in its infancy. Clare had a hunch that this lively group of teenage young men could find a way to use Clare's portable computer and possibly to communicate.
"MARK, THE FAMOUS WRITER"
Mark called himself "Mark The Famous Writer". Mark was confined to a wheelchair. He had no use of his arms, hands or legs. Clare described Mark in this way: "Mark tried an assortment of sticks until he figured out how to hold the stick in his mouth and punch away on my NEC portable." Notes were exchanged between Mark and some Sunday School kids in Burnaby. Then people all over North America were sharing their impressions of "Motley Crue" with Mark.Mark died in March of 1985 not really aware of what an innovator he had been.
GEORGIA GRIFFITH
The Rev. Curtis Ackley of the United Church of Christ had been in discussions with a new friend, Georgia Griffith, over a computer network. "One day we were talking about worship," Curt reported, "I asked her if she had seen a certain movie that we had used in church. It was then that she told me she was blind. She worked with a Braille reader called Versa Writer. Everything on her screen came in raised dots on her "versy".So I started asking her about music and whether she had heard a new album.
Then Curt found out that Georgia was DEAF as well as BLIND.
Georgia Griffith is the only certified Braille music proof reader in America.
But church? "Been over 15 years since I was in one. I just sit there - have to be led in, for I lost my sense of balance 15 years ago with my hearing. But in front of a screen, I'm FREE!!!"
The stories of Anscomb House and Georgia Griffith have haunted me for the intervening fourteen years. It was only recently that I connected them with two contemporary stories.
STEPHEN HAWKING
Born in England, Stephen Hawking entered Oxford at the age of 17. Not particularly sports like, Stephen took up rowing. Three years later Stephen noticed that he was "getting more clumsy, and I fell over once or twice for no apparent reason."Stephen was diagnosed with motor neurone disease, ALS for short, a.k.a. Lou Gehrig's disease.
Stephen married Jane and together they had three children. His brilliance in the subject of physics have resulted in a research fellowship in Cambridge University.
But the effects of ALS were progressive so that Stephen was gradually losing his mobility, his independence and finally his voice.
Stephen became a professor at Cambridge University researching, among other things, Einstein's General Theory of Relativity. His book, "A Brief History of Time", has become a popular favorite.
As Steven's fame grew his physical abilities diminished. With no voice, Steven writes and communicates with a computer system. The computer screen is mounted on the arm of his wheelchair. A cursor moves across the upper part of the screen and Stephen can stop upon selected words by pressing a switch in his hand.
Steven says: "in this way I can select words, which are printed on the lower part of the screen. When I have built up the sentence, I can send it to a speech synthesizer."
"I can also give lectures. I write the lecture beforehand, and save that on disk. I can then send it to the speech synthesizer, a sentence at a time."
The audience for a speech given by Stephen Hawking listens to his words through a speech synthesizer. According to Stephen it gives him an accent which have been described variously as Scandinavian, American or Scottish.
CHRISTOPHER REEVE
Memorial Day 1995 Christopher Reeve fell from his horse and seriously damaged his spine. This movie actor, best known for his portrayal of Superman, has become a spokesman and inspiration for all those with spinal cord injuries.Having never given up his intention to walk again, Christopher Reeve has adapted his life in a remarkable way to his wheelchair and his "puffer".
Christopher Reeve has began directing movies and even more remarkably, has recently starred in a movie.
You remember the 1954 Alfred Hitchcock thriller Rear Window starring Jimmy Stewart and Grace Kelly.
In Christopher Reeve's version of Rear Window his character is a person confined to a wheelchair who breathes using a puffer, which is Reeve's actual condition.
His character witnesses the murder in the building opposite and finds a way to communicate using email with the murderer.
When I watched an excerpt from rear window showing Reeve creating email by talking to his computer and then saying "SEND", that I was inspired to learn more about voice recognition software and went out and purchased some, complete with the headset microphone.
4 stories: "Mark, the Famous Writer" of Anscomb House, Georgia Griffith, Stephen Hawking and Christopher Reeve, spanning the era from 1985 to 1999, all convince me that one of the greatest roles for the computer in the new millennium will be for the liberation of a great number people in unusual circumstances.
Gordon Laird March 14, 1999.
Afterword: I delivered this speech in Parksville on March 14, 1999. May 10, 1999 David Lochhead suffered a massive stroke which disabled him completely leaving only eye-movement. A number of his friends undertook a North-America-wide search for devices which might help David communicate in his condition. We learned about "Eye-Gaze" which would allow him to run a computer using eye movements. We also learned about "Mind-mouse" which can be inserted in the brain. Unfortunately David's other problems, namely pneumonia and aneurysms in the brain, were so severe that we were unable to proceed with any device.
G. L. July 19, 1999