Sessions with Catherine
First Session:
Date: December 19, 1998
Location: Internet Cafe
Accomplished:
- Met Catherine for the first time to determine if she could be interfaced.
- Catherine and the Center both had arm braces for Catherine.
- Setup a joystick for Catherine, but had no widgits for clicking.
- Joystick was clearly working for Catherine, so we set up another meeting with her.
Second Session:
Date: May 6, 1999
Location: Center
Accomplished:
- Taped joystick to Catherine's hand because she did not have her arm brace.
- Tested Catherine's motions to locate the best areas for a click.
- Found that dropping the back part of her right arm onto a click and lifting her right shoulder were the easiest motions for her.
- Catherine surfed the web for her first time! (She's a big fan of J. Crew!!)
Third Session:
Date: May 26, 1999
Location: Center
Accomplished:
- Continued to try to set up and fit Catherine to her joystick with her arm brace.
- Began trying to use new software and see what she was capable of.
- Continued to let Catherine surf the web to allow her to become more acquainted with the internet.
Fourth Session:
Date: June 22, 1999
Location: Center
Accomplished:
- First time for Catherine to use her own computer.
- Set up the joystick and realized that Catherine's rest position was not consistent.
- Chose 3 places where we could mount her switches because she had a new wheelchair since her previous visit.
- New locations for the switches are next to her right arm, behind her head, and next to her head.
Fifth Session:
Date: July 20, 1999
Location: Center
Accomplished:
- Tried a new joystick that was upside-down.
- Designed a metal rod with a ring at the end to slip through her arm brace and place the joystick through this ring.
- Problems with the joystick:
- Attached to Loc-Line and wasn't very stable.
- Catherine had trouble with the motion of the joystick.
- Cursor moved too quickly on screen. She prefers the cursor to move very slowly.
- **Most important lesson--When testing a new joystick, test the original joystick also in order to determine which joystick is more effective.**
- New table designed for Catherine to mount her joystick on.
- Need plastic for the bottom part of her arm brace so she won't get an abrasion.
For her next visit:
- Mount the joystick on the table with a stable mounting device.
- Modify the left-click switch that sits on Catherine's arm. Needs a way to fasten.
- Test another switch below her right elbow activated by dropping her elbow off the arm rest.
- Design bottom plastic part of Catherine's arm brace.
- Cover the table with Teflon to create a smoother surface.
Sixth Session:
Date: August 13, 1999
Location: Center
Accomplished:
Back to
Catherine's
main page.