Twitter has popularized short blurbs of online conversation. Now the free social messaging service is being tested as a way to help disabled people communicate.
For years now, researchers have helped those unable to talk or write communicate in alternate ways. For instance, those with cerebral palsy can control a special keyboard with eye movement or by activating a laser attached to their head. Technology is now advancing to help people with more severe disabilities speak. Those who are unable to move their head â?? such as those with ALS or high spinal chord injuries — can create short messages simply by thinking. What’s on their minds, or literally their scalp, –electrical impulses– are transmitted to a keyboard pictured on a computer screen. That keyboard that allows that to do what millions of American are doing: sending out short messages in real time, using Twitter. (7th item.)