Software Allows Disabled to Work on Computers
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Written by Jon Bjornstad
Published in Hamodia, 4 Sivan 5769
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(MCT) – For Christine Bakanhoff-Adams and Gloria Kaswen, too much has been about loss – losing vision, losing the use of their legs and then their arms, and ultimately not being able to work with their hands.
But the two women have something in common besides MS – something that will help them regain some of the control they have lost.
Both Bakanoff-Adams and Kaswen were referred by therapists at Domincan Hospital in Santa Cruz, California, to Jon Bjornstad, an independent software consultant in town who has built a remarkable program that enables quadriplegics to use a computer to do the things many of us do without a second thought.
Bjornstad sees software as an art form. He believes carefully crafted lines of code possess the power to transform lives.
“I am an artist,” says Bjornstad, a studious-looking 59-year old who writes code because it brings him joy. His masterwork is something he calls Sue Centre, named for Sue Simpson, a paralyzed woman who Bjornstad volunteered to help with technology issues in the 1980s. Bjornstad was eventually inspired to come up with his own software solution to her tech travails. Simpson has since died, but Bjornstad has continued to improve Sue Centre and to evangelize for his complex program. He says he’s written more than 15,000 lines of code in Perl programming language to date and more improvements could be coming.
Yes, there are other programs that will do some or all of what Bjornstad’s does. But there is one big difference – he gives the software away for free. He set up both Bakanoff and Kaswen with his program. He provided tech support and consults with them on a regular basis to keep things running smoothly.
Sue Centre relies on a small camera tracking a reflective dot worn on the users’ forehead. When a user moves her head, the curser glides across the screen. Holding the cursor over commands, letters and icons has the effect of clicking on the item.
“It just made me very, very open to the world,” says Barkanoff-Adams.
Kaswan, a Sue Centre user since 2005, barely knows where to start in praising the program. Best of all she can maintain her privacy. No longer does she have to dictate her letters to someone else or have a third person read her notes others have sent.
“Having some control over my thoughts and communication is very important, because I don’t have control over anything else,” says Kaswan, the mother of two grown sons.
It’s that sort of user satisfaction that keeps Bjornstad going, even if his program has hardly gotten wide distribution. In fact, he knows of only three people currently using it. Part of that is because it takes some expertise to set up and support. (Bjornstad says any decent system administrator could handle it.)
Steve Jacobs, an Ohio entrepreneur specializing in accessible technology for the disabled, says that it’s not the number of users that makes Sue Centre so significant.
“Jon has injected his heart and soul into developing this, and he’s giving it away for free,” says Jacobs, who called Bjornstad on behalf of and MS patient in his area. “To get a sophisticated system like this would cost anywhere from $2000 to $10,000.”
In fact, Bjornstad says, it’s not about numbers. It is about how much Sue Centre changes the lives of the few who do use it.
And on tat count, it’s apparent that Bjornstad is doing very well indeed.