large wooden board holding a text book with tube attachment and device to turn the page

Interesting inventions to help patients

Early computer technology led to a number of new devices being tested to help patients in the Duke of Cornwall Spinal Injuries Unit. The Spinal Injuries Unit opened in 1984 and by 1992/1993 images in our collection show computers being used to assist patient coordination, communication and other activities. A page turner device attached to a reading frame was operated by a suck and blow switch. Other photographs show patients operating, by today’s standards, a rather large and bulky keyboard using a rubber ended pencil in their mouths. The monitor screens also show how far we have come with graphical display since the early 1990s.

 

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