i-devices

With all the excitement surrounding Apple's launching of the iPad, it could have been easy to miss the obvious application of this technology for people with disabilities - especially autism. Many people with autism have some very sophisticated, but cumbersome devices that have a voice output. In addition to their unwieldiness, they are phenomenally expensive. this gives much pause to any parent or school district to move forward to purchase such a device. And knowing the chances of the device getting tossed, dropped, dipped would only make one hesitate more. To be sure, it is all of these factors that make the devices so heavy in the first place. They are very sturdy. But at $8,000, wouldn't it be worth exploring the much less expensive iPad, with its simple interface and (for this month of Autism Awareness) free apps to download created for people with autism.

If the sophistication put into the development of the devices designed by speech therapists with the complete understanding of language, the iPad would be incredibly useful to so many people.