September 30, 2024, is National Non-Verbal Awareness Day. This day serves as a reminder to support and advocate for non-verbal individuals, ensuring that their voices are heard, and their rights are respected.
Case Managers often work with clients with communication difficulties, supporting them to ensure they have access to the right professionals and equipment. Eye gazing technology involves a special eye tracking camera mounted below a screen which observes one of the user’s eyes. By looking at rectangular “keys” on the control screen for a specified period, a user can ‘press’ a key to convey a message.
We asked two of our non-verbal clients to tell us a little bit about how they use their eye gaze technology to communicate.
Leila
Leila is seventeen years old; she is a twin, and she has cerebral palsy which affects all four limbs. She uses a Smartbox Grid Pad 13 to communicate and to control some devices such as her phone and tablet.
Leila attends sixth form and has recently had a work experience placement supporting the communication team at her school, she has been able to use her eye gaze to answer phone calls for the team!
Despite being non-speaking, it has been apparent from a very early age that Leila understood spoken language.
She loves all the things that you’d expect a seventeen-year-old to – these include food, make up, clothes and music. Leila has a brilliant sense of humour, and it’s hard to keep up with swapping and editing all the bad jokes that she loves to tell on her eye gaze. Leila also loves going on the social media app TikTok.
Leila has had speech and language therapy (SLT) since childhood, as she prepares for adulthood, she is working on using her eye gaze to initiate and contribute to conversations. SLT also supports Leila’s family, school staff and carers to navigate the eye gaze and keep the vocabulary on it up to date and relevant for Leila.
Besides SLT, Leila has the fantastic support of her assistive technology consultant who keeps her eye gaze running problem free!
Leila’s Speech and Language Therapist, Jo, interviewed Leila to find out how her eye gaze changed her life.
How long have you used eye gaze for Leila?
I’ve used my eye gaze since 2014. That’s 10 years ago. Not many people used eye gaze then.
What has eye gaze supported you to do?
Now I can be social, tell jokes, chat with my family and friends and do my schoolwork.
What else has eye gaze helped you with?
Now I can choose what I want to wear, choose food I want to eat, choose my makeup and nail varnish and play my favourite music on Alexa.
Jack
Jack is a 22-year-old young man with cerebral palsy affecting all four limbs. Jack lives with his family and their cat. He is a sociable and intelligent young man. He has limited verbal communication skills and uses his eye-gaze computer to communicate. He is also able to communicate with facial expressions and eye pointing.
Business Director Minnieke reached out to Jack and asked him to tell us more about his Eye gaze.
Jack said, “My name is Jack, and I live in Sheffield, South Yorkshire. I have been using my eye gaze since I was eight years old. It’s opened up a whole new world to my life and I have a job with AT Therapy and I mentor younger people how to use it.”
We want to say a huge thanks to Leila and Jack for sharing their insights and to Speech and Language therapist, Jo Gallagher, for interviewing Leila.
