Wheelchair joystick connected to an android tablet

Feel pleased that with a little bit of ingenuity we have a working solution for a young Cerebral Palsy man who is about to attend college.

On assessment, it was clear my initial thoughts about voice control wouldn’t work. The young man in question vocalizes but it is far from clear. So an alternative input is required. He uses touch well and therefore screen access is possible, but with accuracy that is difficult.

His wheelchair access – a joystick – does actually give him access and so we connected it to Bluetooth on his Lenovo M10 Plus which is slightly bigger than it’s usual counterpart by a couple of cm’s around. That does make a difference for users. Something portable was needed and so giving this as a solution means that he can easily have it with him. A non-slip material to help with keeping the position.

He uses the left and right button icons on his wheelchair as this make allows computer access which is wonderful for a great solution. A win win for him and for me in providing a workable assistive technology solution that did scratch our heads for a while until we took apart all the needs and built a better, cleaner, more effective solution.