Coglink Case Study

"John's" story
John is a 57-year old man who suffered a severe traumatic brain injury in a workplace accident. He experiences visual and perceptual challenges as well as problems with working memory, attention, and executive functions. His procedural memory is intact. John wanted to use email to communicate with his adult son, his therapists, and a few friends.

Our solution was CogLink with adapted features that assist John in composing and reading email. The case manager at John's residential facility used the CogLink Helper to add a speak button that allows John to hear incoming messages while he reads the text. The dual input of speech and text helps John comprehend and retain brief messages. His case manager initially thought John might benefit from word prediction, but a brief trial showed that it was more distracting than helpful for John. His case manager was especially pleased when he learned that he could remove a feature like word prediction just by clicking a button on the Helper link. John and his case manager appreciate how they can work together to create an email application that gives him the greatest possible success. Now he emails his family each week and his therapist reports email therapy reminders have increased John's attendance at support group meetings.