“May 15 is Global Accessibility Day, but technology has always been key to our lives every day,” writes Emily Williams, 16, Youth Parliament Member for Tŷ Hafan and Tŷ Gobaith, and big sister to Thomas, 14.
“Since my brother Thomas was a young child, he’s had “tech” like kids toys or lights, but I think the first “accessible” technology I ever heard of was his switch-adapted toys.
“Basically, a company would either produce or adapt toys that would require a small switch (for example, a bubble machine) to be connected to a large button we could place by Thomas’ hand or head. They’d let him play with things he couldn’t usually and were just a whole lot of fun for him (although sometimes not for us, he had this drumming monkey which made a right racket and drove us up the wall!).
“The main thing that’s really helped us though is his eye-gaze. It’s this nifty tablet we can wheel in front of his chair that picks up his eye movements, letting him play digital games, watch videos, or read books. Originally it was brought in as an option for him to communicate but eventually it was decided Thomas lacked the cognitive function to properly use it so now its primary use is entertainment (or torturing Dad by playing Take That again and again).
“We’ve managed to link it to our Alexa, so now Thomas can control the lights, bubble tube, and music in his room. So, although the eye-gaze hasn’t been as helpful as we originally thought it might be, it’s still been a key tool in making so much in life way more accessible and – honestly – fun for Thomas.
“For me personally, I think technology has mostly been helpful when Thomas ends up in hospital. It doesn’t happen very often but when it does, I’ll regularly be managing the house on my own for an hour or two while my parents swap over. In that time, it’s super-helpful for me to be able to contact my parents about the situation or my friends to get support.
“This time last year, Thomas got rushed to the hospital the night before Eurovision (a big deal for us!). For that night, both of my parents were out until around 2am and I Face-Timed my friend for a large part of that time and without that support I don’t really know how I would’ve managed.
“The night after, while Eurovision was on, my Mum still had to be away in the hospital so being able to text her during the show was really special, as it’s a time we would usually spend altogether as a family.”