Communications of the ACM
Pc Changed His World
Kevin Berg uses touch-screen technology and a wand attached to his head to run his computer-repair business. His wife, Melinda Berg, helps him translate for people in person.
Credit: Greg Gilbert / The Seattle Times
Kevin Berg lives with cerebral palsy, which causes involuntary and exaggerated body movement. Since 2006, the 37-year-old has run a computer-repair business with his wife Melinda from their home in Auburn, WA. He began fixing computers during high school, and when people began insisting on paying him, it turned into a company, now called CompuPane.
Berg uses a tablet computer, touch-screen technology and a wand attached to his head to run his business. The Bergs estimate CompuPane has about 50 regular customers, most with home or small offices. Some of the computers they fix are as far away as Japan and Australia.
Melinda Berg helps with some of the physical hardware repairs through her husband's instruction, and he does most of his work remotely, operating the tablet with his head-wand. Before this, Berg operated a trackball with his chin, a slow and labor-intensive process. The new devices have made a difference they call night and day.
From The Seattle Times
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