COMPORTA: A portable and accessible communicator

The project COMPORTA is designed for people with severe disabilities in the upper extremities and in language production. Disabilities in the arms and/or hands (limitation of motor functions or strength coordination or dexterity problems) generate severe problems in the manipulation and ability to use a conventional keyboard, mouse, controls, standard touch-sensitive-screen user interfaces, etc. Speaking disability is other major problem while this impairment causes not to be understood adequately. This type of motor disability implies big difficulties for accessing a computer, which in turn could be useful to face the speaking disability. This difficulty may become greater when trying to access to smaller terminals or portable communicators due to their reduced size. Likewise, many of disabled people have great difficulties in making themselves understood in their closest and most everyday surroundings. The goal of the COMPORTA project is to design and develop a portable communication system, based on a PDA unit, and at the same time, accessible for those people who can only make limited movements with their hands similarly to the movements they make using the joystick of a motorized wheelchair. It is also featured with a remote control of applications found on a PC and a flexible mechanism to fix and fasten the PDA unit to the wheelchair that facilitates its use. The final success of the project will depend, to a great extent, on guaranteeing the best user access to the PDA.