Re: [QUAD-L] Re: reading stands/aids

[Eric Olson]

Sometimes in life a few spines must be broken.  Your patient broke his spine and so to must his books make the spinal sacrifice.  It's a paperback not a priceless work of literature.  Some have gone so far as to cut the spine completely off, punch holes in the pages, put in 3 ring binder.  The one thing I've learned since my injury is that necessity and functionality run the show.  Eric Kelvin Smith wrote: Hello all on the chat list.   I was hoping someone might have some advice/tips/contacts with regard to assistive devices for reading books for those folk with high level quadriplegic spinal cord injury or similar. There is a chap at the rehab' unit to which I'm attached who loves to read paperback novels and was after something to allow him to read independently (given his relatively average hand function at the moment). He's working away at his abilities with his hands and has also downloaded a number of books as well. He has tried a reading stand that has meant breaking the spine of the novel for it to be functional, and even then it's been prone to flick over 6 pages at once so it's not been an entire success. He'd rather avoid breaking the spine of a book for one thing and so was curious to know if anyone had any suggestions? You may know of things commercially available or just plain clever tricks that people have developed to tackle this kind of challenge - I'm sure he's not the only person who's had to tackle this one.   So, any help you can provide would be much appreciated. Photos are always welcome too if they're handy.   Thanks in advance, bye for now.   Kel Smith. Recreation Therapist Moorong Spinal Unit Royal Rehabilitation Centre Sydney. ______________________________________________________________________ This email has been scanned for the NSW Department of Health by the MessageLabs Email Security System. The Department regularly monitors emails and attachments to ensure compliance with its Electronic Messaging Policy. _____________________________________________________________________ Disclaimer: This message is intended for the addressee named and may contain confidential information. If you are not the intended recipient, please delete it and notify the sender. Views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender, and are not necessarily the views of NSW Health.