My new voice

This is  the  short  version  of     My   New voice.

Basically  my  vocal cords  are  to tight.   Which  is  why  i   Use  a   Computer  voice.

Ive  also  lost   Movement.    So  i  now  need  an  eyegaze   Computer   So  i can  still  hold   Conversations with   My family  and  friends.

Basically   I  need
A  mircosoft  surface    5  or  above  table    With  windows  10 pro

And   A  tobii dynavox eye mobile  camera
Together  it  comes   With  a  stand   ,  that  has  inferred  sensor , speaker  

And  it fits  to  my  wheelchair

It  cost  £4000

Which  we  cant  afford.
The  added problem  is  we are   Currently  on  lockdown   , my familly and friends  want  me  to  skype  them  

But  i  cant   Do  it  with out  help
The  speachthrapist   Had  to  cancel   Out  meeting   Due  to  lockdown     So  we   Decided  to  see if we   Could send her a video of  me  using the eyegaze.

This is me  calibrating  some eyegaze   software  which   Works on  the  ipad   During the  day but  is   No good at  night to me so  we  are  going  to  loan a tobii devi so  can see the  difference.   This     Need you to have  a lot of head movemen.  Which i dont  have  usually   .  I only  moved  on  this  video  because it was  out of my control.
​This is  me   Trying to  use   Eygaze  


So  this is on an ipad,  the  down side is 

You need   Movement to   Do  it   As it    Mouse emulation   And not   Gaze  selection  although  after  video  was  recorded  i  did  manage  to  selec a randome word.

But  this  wil not  work in the  middle of the  night

It  isnt able to  control  anything like  the  tv   Which  i need  it to do

But  it   Does show me   Eygazing on a different system   Other then tobii dynavox .

my  new voice

every one  knows  my   voice  is     a voice   from  equipment,

everyone  knows  i  dont  alway show   this  problem  to  strangers  or   proffessionals.    some  have  seen  my  voice  suddely die  on me.

others  have  seen   the  loss of  movement.

i  writing  this  page  to  try  and  explan ,  how  it  feels  to  suddenly  looose  both   not   just  for  a momnt,   because  of  nervous   . thats   not  why  it  happens.  
it  happens   because   my  vocal cord  get to tight   they  hurt,   the  loose  of  movement    happens    at  the  same  time.

the  weather   changing  doesnt  help,  the  ostioartritus  doesnt  help  the   dysphonia,  or the dysmotilly  doesnt help.

its  not   stress  that  trigger  it  happening

i  dont  fit in  a box  and  no matter  how  much   we  explain    the  need  for   eyegaze   equipment  the   day  of  the  assesment    i  can  move   weather  it   due  to   being  embarrased ,  nervous, it

trouble  is  the  moment  the  assment over    i  cant  move,  cant  talk ,   cant  do  anything

its  very destressing    we  need   to  solve  this  as   i  cant  take  it happening

1  no  we  cant  self  fund   the  equipment    i  need were  both on bennerfit  ,  so  we  ask  for  help  by setting  up  a fundrasing page   ,   geoff my  partner  is  blind  , dieabetic type  2   and  has  epilepsy     i  cant  work   due to  my   disablities (too  many  to mention)

but   the  fundrasier  isnt  working,    so  self funding  is   not  an option.  so  we    ask   the  local  speach  and language department,   this   being  our  last   and  only  option  left,   who  work  with  the  sequal  trust  for  help.
as  this stuation   can not  contine

we   loan  a  few   devices      an   due  to  lockdown  i  couldnt  get  assessed  inperson

the  first  device  we  loaned   was  the  gridpad  12  with  eye mini  ,  speach   software  was  grid  3   

nice   device  but  was  found  to  be  too  heavy,   cost  was  £6000    we  also loan a floor  stand.
we now  loaning an ipad mini 5

it  has  grid for ipad   and   i  can  use   my  ipad  apps   (  my  current  app  on my  ipad  are no longer  able  to  be  updated )  on  it  .  its  the  right  weight.

so  we  thought  we’d  film    me   using  a  eye gaze  type app
the  app in the  video  is called pigio    (  bare  in mind  i  only  used  it   for  the  first  time)

i  think  i did  really  good  as  this  is  using  both eyes  to  eyegaze with   and i normally  use   my  right eye only  when  i  tried  eyegaze   on the  grid pad device  

but  you  can  see  I control   it  with  no  problem   i  was  struggling  to  move   and  couldnt   find setting  to  make the  button   you me  struggling to  press  need  to  start  the app  calibrating.  but  after that   i  was   hands free

my  other  app  i  use wasnt   on  the  loan device  at the  time   of filming

so  this  is the video
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