Help make the kids of the Broward Children’s Center rock stars!

By admin · February 23, 2010 · Filed in Assistive Technology, Assistive Technology Articles, Broward Children's Center, Causes, Non-Profit, Special Needs Kids, Videos

Through the generosity of the Starlight Children’s Foundation, the Broward Children’s Center was notified that they are donating a Rock Band kiosk(pictured) fully loaded with a plama TV, XBox 360 and full Rock Band gear. The Starlight Children’s Foundation helps seriously ill children and their families cope with their pain, fear and isolation through entertainment, education and family activities. What a great entertainment device for the children of our center to enjoy!

Many of the children at the Broward Children’s Center use assistive technology to function in their daily lives. I started hunting around the internet and found an adaptive guitar that allows us to tie devices such as sip-and-puff technology into the gaming system opening the door to even MORE of our kids and providing them with ability to enjoy this wonderful donation as well.

I ended up finding a device called AT-Play from Compusult to accomplish exactly what I was looking for. As described on their website:

AT-Play allows physically disabled persons to independently play the Rock Band 2 video game for Xbox 360. Guitar strumming and chords can be controlled with your preferred arrangement of switches, including sip-and-puff devices, buttons, and foot pedals.

This same company has provided us with proven technologies in the past and are a very highly respected company. They are also the makers of the Jouse 2 product which is their version of sip-and-puff technology. Several of our kids at the Broward Children’s Center utilize this equipment every single day.

So with the kiosk on its way to our facility and the adaptive and assistive technology at our fingertips, I am trying to raise funds to help pay for this modified equipment. To make a donation, no matter how much, all you have to do is CLICK HERE. All donations will be processed through First Giving and donated directly to the Broward Children’s Center. You can also click on the “widget” in the right hand column of this blog to make a donation.

If you would like to see this technology in action, I have included the video from Compusult below. If you fast forward to about 3:00 into the video, you will see this modified technology in action. Once we have this entire setup in place I am hoping to get some video of the kids at the center enjoying this great new addition!