Meet Ashley Hughes. Ashley is a C1 quadreplegic paralized during birth. Voluntarily she can only move her face and head. She requires a respirator to breath. Neurology suggests it is unlikely Ashley would ever be able to live to her full potential-as a mind. Her physical limitations are too extreme; she cannot do what "normal" people do to express and support themselves. For peope like Ashley, this can often cause severe frustration and/or depression. I3 was in a position to address this profound challenge.
Information culture has ushered in an historically unique possibility for minimizing many difficulties faced by the severely disabled. Innovatively intrumented with novel interface systems, they can become fluent citizens of an information society significantly unencumbered by "disability."
Ashley is a mind trapped in a useless body. Warner's doctoral research explored perception, expression and ways of rendering expression. Disabled solutions sprang from the conception of the body itself as an interface mechanism. Building systems to use the "technology of biology" creates novel options for controlling any informatic. Giving Ashley access to computers would require capturing those outputs she is capable of generating: simple and coordinated movements of her facial muscles. Patrick Keller as I3's main 'lab slave' at the time of our work with Ashley deserves much gratitute and credit for the day in day out labor of this effort.
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