Stacy found a pretty cool article from the New York Times about a boy, Owen, with a debilitating motor-neuron disease and how he is able to use an iPad an iPad to do something he has never been able to do before…turn the pages of a book. This is something that most of us take for granted, but because if his disabilities, Owen doesn’t have the strength to move the mouse for a computer. Because of the iPad’s touch sensitive screen, he is able to flip the pages of a book that has been downloaded to the iPad.
The article goes on to give several examples of how the iPad is helping people of all ages and with various disabilities do things that they were not able to do before. With a text-to-speech app on the iPad, people who are unable to use their own voice to speak can type what they want to say into the app, and the iPad can “speak” for them. If you want to read the full article, it can be found here:
https://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/31/nyregion/31owen.html
We still want to get James an iPad for Christmas. I had originally thought we needed about $500 to get an iPad for James, but I didn’t factor in the cost of apps. In the article, it mentions that “his grandmother bought him a $600 iPad in August, and his parents have invested about $200 more in software.”
Some of you have been very generous so we are well on our way to make this a reality. A HUGE thank you to those of you that have already made a donation for James’ iPad. If you haven’t made a donation and would like to, here is the PayPal donation link. You can either make a donation from your own PayPal account, or with a credit or debit card.
https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=WNQYFCCL6R2QE
