Granting Dignity


10/03/2016

Scene Magazine | Fall 2016

It's one thing to tell a disabled veteran there is hope. It's quite another to provide functional tools to allow that same veteran the dignity and independent function that deliver on that promise.

Jon Turnquist, '92, '10 MOL, clinical assistant professor and the director of the Assistive Technology Lab at St. Ambrose, is all about dignity.

Turnquist is the imaginative force behind Jim's Place, the assistive technology solutions house on the west edge of campus. Opened in 2011 through the generous support of the family of the late Jim O'Rourke, Jim's Place is a "lab" designed to provide clients, caregivers and families with practical devices that allow disabled persons to function at home.

Assisted by SAU students, Turnquist has taken assistive technology to such cutting edge places that Jim's Place earned a visit from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Representatives left even more impressed than they'd expected, Turnquist said.

"They told us that they thought an adapted house was nothing more than putting a ramp on a house, installing a toilet riser and putting a tub seat in the shower," Turnquist recalled. "We blew them away. When they left they told us they couldn't believe what true adaptation means."

The list of things the VA officials witnessed at Jim's Place includes head laser communication devices, specialized lift systems, modified bathrooms, fall prevention systems and a plethora of other devices and systems, including whole-house voice assistant technology that pre-dates the arrival of commercial systems such as Alexa and Cortana.

Little wonder the VA representatives were impressed. And little wonder that a grant request to the VA written by Turnquist and the SAU Advancement Office has won $185,234 in new funding that will help veterans anywhere both access and assess solutions on display at Jim's Place.

Rep. Dave Loebsack (D, Iowa), whose office assisted in the grant-seeking process, said he is particularly pleased that the grant will help veterans and service members recently disabled by conflicts in the Middle East. "I look forward to seeing the great work that St. Ambrose will produce with this funding," he said.

The VA funding will be used to develop a Virtual Demonstration and Training Site, allowing disabled veterans and their caregivers from across the country to view and examine assistive devices at Jim's Place without leaving their homes. Informational hot spots in each room will link Internet users to video demonstrations of every room and device.

The grant also is funding new adaptive solutions in the kitchen at Jim's Place.

"Now, anybody can take a 360-degree virtual tour of the entire house and if they see something they like, they can mouse over it to see how it's configured," Turnquist explained. "We're so happy that we will be able to broadcast this out to the world."

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