Evelina trialled an Eye Gaze device back in August 2021 and, as usual, amazed us all and was so great at it!

“An eye gaze device is essentially a traditional tablet, however instead of using your hands or a mouse to navigate the screen, your eyes do the scrolling. ... By looking anywhere on the screen, the user's eye controls the cursor, while blinking/ long gaze performs a click.”

See Evelina using the eye gaze here.

It was so amazing to watch Evelina navigate the pages, asking for more bubbles and telling us that she was enjoying the games. She did lots of shouting of mummy and daddy and then telling us to go away (cheeky monkey!) and basically being a little chatterbox, which we knew she always would be.

It’s so amazing that devices like this exist and it has basically unlocked a whole new world of communication for Evelina, whereas before we were using cards and having to anticipate what was to come next - and only giving Evelina a couple of options, with the eye gaze she was navigating a page of several images and making many different choices.

Unfortunately our team here (whilst amazing and very supportive) do not fund these devices and, of course, they are very expensive.

The Tobii Dynavox I-series costs over £10,000 to buy, not including the stand (£500) and the mount for Evelina’s wheelchair (£120) so that we are able to use it when out and about. Because we don’t just want to talk at home, do we!

We’ve found a lovely family who, due to very sad circumstances within their family, are selling one that is just 18 months old for £4,500.

We are so excited for Evelina to be able to have ‘a voice’ and to hear our little chatterbox again. It turns out she is actually quite a bossy pants (and we absolutely can’t get enough of it).

Any funds raised here are towards Evelina’s very own Eye Gaze device and we are always so grateful to everyone who is supporting our amazing girl and cheering her on with us. 

Evelina on instagram