Their time to be heard

Using technology to empower children with disabilities

Images by ONE FOR THE WALL
 

Chau

Tom Chau (PhD ’98) is the vice-president and director of research at Bloorview Research Institute at Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital in Toronto. 

When young children say their first words, it’s not uncommon for excited parents to reach for a journal and pencil in those utterances for posterity.

Tom Chau (PhD ’98) keeps a first words log too, but for other people’s kids – many of whom are middle graders, high school students or even young adults.

Leading a team of 20, he researches and creates technologies for children with complex disabilities who otherwise wouldn’t be able to communicate.

“From the child’s perspective, I just can’t imagine the frustration of having all those emotions, opinions and preferences locked inside your own body and never being able to get them out,” says Chau. 

 

If we can equip the children with the technology and the ability to advocate for themselves you know that would really speak volumes.

He recounts the first words said by one of his patients, who was finally able to communicate with the aid of the team’s vocal cord vibration switch, also known as The Hummingbird. The teen had never conversed independently. But sitting in front of an on-screen keyboard, and typing by humming, the boy wrote his first word: the name of his longtime educational assistant. Touched, she placed her head on his shoulder.

But the teen paused only for a moment before typing his next words: “Doom 3.” The video game he wanted to play.

“Unbelievable, right?” laughs Chau. “We always joke that here’s a typical adolescent. He’s completely got his priorities straight.”

maria and mother

Maria and her mother Elena Chukalovskaya. 

Chau believes technology will go a long way toward empowering children with disabilities. He says he imagines a day when non-verbal or severely impaired kids can go to Parliament Hill and advocate for their own rights.

“If we can equip the children with the technology and the ability to advocate for themselves,” he says, “you know that would really speak volumes.”