Willem is a 19 years old boy living in a small town ina Western European country. In his early childhood, when he was about 18 months old, his family doctor did a close examination of his nervous system and muscular functions. His parents were worried about the fact that he was very slow in learning to stand and walk independently. ‘He walked like a drunken sailor’ his father said at that time. After further examinations at a hospital by a neurologist he was diagnosed having a slow progressive, hereditary form of muscle disease. In the late 80’s it was already common for handicapped children to go to a normal school, and Willem went to the kindergarten just like the kids from his neighbourhood. He also spent the first few years at a regular primary school which he enjoyed very much. However, his mobility impairment gradually worsened and caused always more problems. Willem needed much help to go to the toilet, he could not attend the regular gym classes and there was a need to have frequent physical therapy treatment during school hours. Therefore, at the age of nine, his parents decided that he would be better of at a school for special education in his home town. Once there, he was provided with a manual wheelchair and followed an individual educational program at the basic level. At the age of thirteen he went into special secondary education at the middle school level. He could still walk small distances using crutches but used an electric wheelchair most of the time, also due to the fact that the chair of this provision supported his body posture optimally. He used common educational resources like the library or the computer in his classroom. He had no problems in mastering common computer use, which he partly had already learned at home. Initially there was no need for computer adaptations, however due to his worsening hand function his Occupational Therapist had to learn him at the age of 14 to use the specific settings of his computer. Through the use of the ‘Accessibility menu’ in the Windows Configuration screen he could change the mouse pointer movements. He also could adjust the reactions of his keyboard on involuntarily pressing two adjacent buttons. By now he is using is specific small keyboard, the Cherry mini keyboard, which makes it possible for him to do keyboard operations with minor movements of the underarm and hand. He also uses a sensible and very small joystick as a mouse replacement (see the illustrations below).
