BT Datazone Project

In this project we are working with Scope, the charity for people with Cerebral Palsy, to provide easier access to information and communication to people who are wheelchair users. One of Scope's students Natalie is taking part in the trial. Natalie uses a PC (called a wheel top) attached to her wheelchair and she moves the cursor around the screen by operating switches with her leg. Natalie explains how she uses her PC at the moment and how she would benefit from having easier access to the Internet.

"The wheel top is not just a communication aid that I can use to talk but it has also allowed me to play my own CD's, for the first time in my life. At present I am a part of a Voc Ops group called Activ8. We do a newsletter every half term.

I am good on a computer and I can work on my own and it's great. I can E-mail people that something I wanted to do for years. I want a computer, when I leave, with controls I can use. I want to buy a house. I hope to soon have wireless computer access to the internet through the WheelTop. So I can be independent and I don't have to ask some one to plug my switch into a different computer.

I want a camera built into it like on a mobile phone. I'd like to be able to have environmental controls built in to it so I can turn the TV on and watch DVD's and videos. I'd like a mobile phone card so I can send and receive texts, and chat to people."

Read a press release about this project