January 18th 2007

I got the call all parents fear...it was from a 911 operator telling me my 22 year old son (Joshua) was in a car accident and on his way to the hospital. When we got there we found out he had a C4-C5 spinal cord injury...the next few weeks were pretty tough as he went from hanging on by a thread to slowly getting stronger. That was followed by months of recovery and therapy in Kernan Rehabilitation Center in Baltimore, MD (where he continued to get stronger and a little more mobility). After about 4 months we were finally able to take him home. He is technically quadriplegic but he can move both legs a little, he can move his right arm enough to operate a joystick and his torso is strong enough for him to sit up by himself. We count all of that as a blessing.

Bluetooth Headsets are NOT Hands-free

Over time he has tried to become more and more independent...pretty hard to do when you can't really move your arms or legs. I am sure that many of you reading this can relate. He uses a mouth stick and Speech Recognition programs to operate his computer. He has gotten pretty good at it and can play games, Instant Message and surf the Internet.

The one thing that has been a big problem for him has been independent use of a phone. There are a couple of expensive and bulky Voice Command systems available but none of them are very convenient to use. Bluetooth headsets should be the answer...but alas they too require the push of a button to make a call....until now that is.

For much of 2008 his mother (my wife) kept prodding me to figure out a way for him to use a Bluetooth headset. You know what they say..."Mother is the necessity of all invention" (or something like that). So in the fall of 2008 I set my mind to it. After going through a couple of trials and errors I eventually figured out a way to replace the push button switch in the headset with a magnetic switch. Then I simply had to put a small but strong magnet behind the headrest cushion on my son's wheelchair so with the modified headset in his ear he simply has to turn his head towards his headrest so the headset moves close to the magnet and the magnetic switch is activates and mimics pushing the button.

My son is thrilled...he can independently make calls to his friends; to me or his mother and to follow-up calls to doctors and facilities related to his injury.

Marketing began in 2008

In the fall of 2008 I put this website in place in the hopes that others will also benefit from the No Buttons Headset. Since I make it in-house...I can make minor modifications; so if you have a particular need just let me know your specific needs (see the Contacts page)...and I will do my best to make an adaptation that will work for you.