Country: Greece

Department: Medicine, University of Athens

Student: Motor disability. The student cannot move any part of his body below his neck. He needed solution for handling books and writing. He also had difficulty to sit for a long time and preferred to work lying down.

Challenges: Technological solutions that only used head movements should be found.

Skills and Strategies: Special assistive devices and software were chosen by the staff of the Accessibility Unit for this student and the Department of Education covered all the costs for this equipment to be purchased. A robotic device that turned the pages of a book using sip and puff command helped the printed material handling. A laptop computer was bought that could mount on his wheel chair, as well as on his bed. A camera mouse was chosen for the hands-free computer access combined with special Virtual Keyboard software with Word Prediction and Mouse Click Helper software. He has attended all the laboratory courses and exercises (e.g. Anatomy), and done all the practical internships in hospitals.  Although he was unable to use his hands to execute cetain exercises, he watched them and under his instructions a fellow student executed them for him.  As this student will specialise in Psychiatry, it is possible for him to qualify as a doctor without manual skills (injections, surgery, etc.)

The student is expected to complete his studies in Medicine School in 2010.