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Subject:
From:
Barry Ashby <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
St. John's University Cerebral Palsy List
Date:
Sat, 10 Jul 1999 10:48:20 -0400
Content-Type:
text/plain
Parts/Attachments:
text/plain (56 lines)
Hi Tamar,

Good luck with this device.  My son, Stephen (4 years old), is learning to
use a Dynavox.  I often have to spell words in strange ways when programing
it in order to get the device to say something that sound close to the real
word.  This is a problem with names especially.

Anyway, when we purchased his wc we were told that an extra port can be
purchased and attached that will allow the dynavox to run off the WC
battery.  This is obviously not to be the devices main power source as it
will drain the wc battery.  However, when he is older, in the case of an
emergency he would have that option.

Best wishes,
Kim

At 01:58 AM 7/10/1999 EDT, you wrote:
>After many years of waiting for a device that would be  portable enough to
>carry anywhere, and then having to wait for regional center and voc rehab to
>work out who is paying for it, I finally got my talking device today!
>
>It is the dec-talk technology that has been around for 15 years,
>unfortunately, they did not take advantage of sound  cards like soundblaster
>which uses the dec voices, but added many more features that allow greater
>control over  the sound and pronunciation.  After all, medi-cal can't be
>expected to pay for a fancy machine, can they?  well, if they pay 8,000 for a
>wheelchair, i don't see why not a speech machine, but that's another thing.
>
>Even so, some of the voices (there are nine) are very clear, and i do have
>the ability to store corrected pronunciations of words i select.  Still
>trying to perfect "tamar".   My next try will be tah-mar.  And the nice thing
>about the Link, which is what it's called, is that i can plug it in my phone,
>and the voice will go over it. or also a p.a. system, or into a speaker.
>
>it can also plug into a computer but only to stream stuff from the link into
>a file or email. not the other way around.
>they put a very interesting  attachment on my powerchair, it holds a bar that
>has an arm that holds the link.  the arm can be raised up, or it can be let
>down, or  i can lift the central bar and move it out, away from me. I can
>also detach the Link from the arm, and i can take the whole bar out, to
>remove the system from my chair, like when i go to art class and don't want
>the link to get dirty.  so that part of the engineering is excellent. thanks
>to the guy at stanford rehab.  I just wish they'd use a bigger battery so the
>batteries would last longer. now it's only about 3 hours.  maybe i will write
>the company.
>
>there was an adorable 12 year old young man as we waited for the van going
>home, he was nonverbal and had no use of his hands. but he kept grinning at
>me, and was flirting with me nonetheless his mom told me he has lots of
>ladies he flirts with.  he uses an eyegaze system, where he looks at a
>computer screen to pick his words with infrared, and the computer says them
>for him. So there's all kinds of devices out there.
>
>love, tamar
>

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