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It All Starts with Communication
Before I go into what a environmental control unit is, I want to put out a few thoughts:
An environmental control unit (ECU) is a piece of assistive technology that allows a person who is physically disabled to control their living environment. Since a person with a physical disability cannot always pick up the telephone receiver, flick on the light switch, or press the keys on the remote control, an environmental control unit is the technological bridge that allows that to happen. Each particular environmental control unit has its own features but the typical environmental control unit allows the person who is physically disabled the ability to independently control such things as:
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Their are two basic methods of controlling an environmental control unit:
Each manufacturer typically has models available for switch, voice, or switch and voice control. The advantage to a unit that does both is that a user can use the faster voice recognition method on most days but when the person is sick or their voice changes throughout the day, the switch can be used.
An environmental control unit allows the disabled person to control their environment from a single centralized control station, equivalent to a master remote control. The disabled person can either use their voice or access a single accessible switch to issue commands to environmental control unit. The environmental control unit processes the commands and in turn sends out the control signals to the appropriate device (TV, bed, telephone, etc.) All environmental control units consist of a base station that can be a desktop computer running special software or a custom control box housing electronic circuit boards. The base station is usually mounted in the bedroom on a shelf, night stand, or chest of drawers. It's best to locate it out of the way so that daily cleaning or physical movement by staff do not interfere with it. Occasionally the base station is located in the bedroom.
On some systems, separate from the base station is a wireless system mounted on the wheelchair which gives the person access to the environmental control unit while they are up in the chair. So the person has access to the environmental control unit while in bed or while in the wheelchair. The base station does not move. While in the wheelchair the person will speak into a microphone mounting on the wheelchair and the voice is transmitted wirelessly back to the base station.
Some environmental control units have to be moved to wherever the person using it is located. There is no wireless remote accessory. So if they are in bed using the environmental control unit and get up into their wheelchair, the environmental control unit has to be moved so that it is physically mounted on the wheelchair. Obviously this can be a pain and can lead to damage from the back and forth moving. Also the environmental control unit is physically located on the wheelchair so if it is bumped into walls, the environmental control unit can be damaged. Some users who have their environmental control unit mounted on their wheelchair simply place the chair close enough to the bed so that they can operate their chair mounted system from bed.
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