Link to full story

Elke Wisbey's brain damage prevents her from speaking, walking, or feeding herself. Her community raised the £17,000 necessary to buy her a MyTobii Smartbox machine, which uses lasers to detect which phrase her eyes have focused on and then electronically speaks that phrase for her. So at six, she can talk for the first time. She's mastering the equipment much more quickly than her family, and uses it to talk to them, play games, and browse the internet.

This story obviously warms the cockles of our hearts, but it also makes me wonder why technology like this isn't automatically covered for people who are disabled in the area of producing speech. Isn't speech more or less a human right? It seems to me as necessary as breathing, almost. What's glossed over in this story is that for six years, Elke Wisbey could understand what was being said to her, but had no way to make her own desires known, or even show the outside world what was going on in her head.

I know that for people with speech issues, it's often frustrating to try and prove to the non-disabled world that they really have cognition, that they feel and think, and it seems like barriers like this are part of the problem. In fact, even when they get access to speech enablers, there are people who question whether they are "really" speaking (I've already seen comments across the net to this effect about Elke Wisbey, although it's obvious from the article that she is in fact using the technology in a purposeful way).

I'm thrilled Elke can speak now -- I would just like to see everyone similarly situated also enabled in a similar manner, preferably through government funding.

Your thoughts?