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Eliminating the Digital Divide

NEC IT Communication Support Course for People with Severe Disabilities

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"NEC IT Communication Support Course for People with Severe Disabilities" was started in 2008 in cooperation with "Sakura Society, ALS/MND Support Center," an NPO assisting in the care of home-bound ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) patients. The goal of this course is to enable patients with severe disabilities, mainly those with incurable neuromuscular diseases such as ALS and muscular dystrophy, to communicate through using IT.

Patients with incurable neuromuscular diseases slowly become incapacitated as the disease progresses, eventually becoming unable to communicate by using their own voices. Although these patients can use such communication means as selecting letters on a transparent board with their eyes while a family member, nurse or other person nearby watches the movement and reads what the patient would like to say, this is not a perfect means of communication that is possible to do freely with just anyone, anywhere, anytime.

That is where NEC’s "Operate Navi," software that supports PC operations for those with upper limbs disabilities, comes into play. With this software, patients can freely express their feelings by inputting letters onto a computer through using a specialized switch and the slightest motion of any part of the body - their finger tips, temples or eyelids - without operating a mouse or keyboard.

Moreover, they can connect to the outside world via the Internet or e-mail. For example, patients can exchange e-mail with far-away friends and fellow patients, shop over the Internet, listen to their favorite music and study at college on-line.

This course provides support for patients with incurable neuromuscular diseases using IT to communicate. Participants, specialists in the medical field (nurses, public health workers, rehabilitation professionals and others), learn how to use "Operate Navi" and input support devices as well as how to make terminal switches. NEC employees belonging to the division responsible for "Operate Navi" also serve as course instructors.

Comments from Participants

  • The disabilities of the patient that I am now caring for in the hospital are progressing, making it difficult to communicate. So, immediately after this course I was able to introduce IT communications, which has greatly helped the patient as well as the family and those nearby.
  • I had previously learned about communicating via IT, but I regrettably never had the chance to try it. It was really great to be able to actually try out the switch and software in the course.

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