As a former manager of technical services at Perdue Farms, Will Marvel fully appreciates the value of a keyboard. But being diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis-a disease characterized by deterioration of motor skills-in 1994 led to a severe impairment in his abilities to use a computer.
In 2001, after "a slow progression" of the disease that caused degeneration of his ability to use his hands, Marvel was referred to Kevin Caves, program director of the University's Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Communication Enhancement at Duke's Assistive Technology Clinic. Caves paired Marvel with a computer software device that allows him to type with only a mouse-at a speed of 30 words per minute.
"Today, I'm on the computer eight hours a day," Marvel said, adding that he maintains websites, reads news online and even does Internet crossword puzzles.
Marvel is one of millions of patients who contract diseases or sustain injuries that make communication and essential tasks difficult.
"From customer service options to the effects of the computer age, complex technologies are taking on an unprecedented role in people's lives," said Caves, who graduated from the Master of Engineering Management Program at the Pratt School of Engineering in 2003. "But many [disabled people] are being left behind or ignored."
The RERC, a national research program with centers across the country, promotes research for technology that improves the lives of the disabled. It is funded by a $4.75 million grant from the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research.
"RERC consists of 'virtual centers'-six institutions focusing on a particular technology to facilitate life with disabilities," Caves said. "At Duke, we're mainly trying to improve the lives of people who use communication devices by building, designing and researching new devices."
Grant-sponsored projects target patients with disabilities caused by a range of factors, from muscular dystrophy to certain forms of autism.
A major project focuses on increasing the range of devices that can interpret the speech of patients with different impairments. Such technology already assists people with a small number of diseases, such as bulbar palsy.
"In the past, most systems used recordings of speech patterns from regular speech. We're starting out small, recording numbers and such using patients with ALS," said Frank DeRuyter, principal investigator of RERC and chief of the speech pathology and audiology division at the Duke University Medical Center.
Although the development and testing of assistive speech devices are long processes-3,000 data points are required to perfect the vocalization of 11 digits-collaborators hope a range of new tools will be in use by the grant's expiration in 2008.
Caves and his team hope to develop voice recognition devices similar to ones that are currently on the market. They eventually plan to test whether vocabulary models will also work for patients with Parkinson's disease, cerebral palsy and a range of other diseases that cause slurred speech.
DeRuyter and Caves are also collaborating on the early stages of an "eye gaze" system that would allow paralyzed patients to target areas of a screen visually in order to communicate.
"Currently, such systems are too complex for such uses," DeRuyter said. "We hope to simplify this by minimizing the number of [word] choices, among other features."
Not confined to clinics, initiatives at Duke are also integrated into the classroom. Caves taught the Pratt course "Devices for People with Disabilities" last spring.
"We matched student groups with a person with a disability at a local health provider," Caves said. "We built various tools-from a bike for a kid with shorter arms to a 3-D sound station for kids with visual impairments to [help them] operate switch-operated devices using sounds."
According to the grant's mission statement, the NIDRR hopes to contribute to a society in which technological advances benefit everyone.
"We hope to break away from the current standards available, to bring a chance to people with a range of limitations," Caves said.
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