Neil Squire was an accounting student at the University of Victoria and a basketball player. After a car accident left him a high level

tetraplegic Tetraplegia, also known as quadriplegia, is defined as the dysfunction or loss of motor and/or sensory function in the cervical area of the spinal cord. A loss of motor function can present as either weakness or paralysis leading to partial or ...

, his efforts to learn a new form of communication became the inspiration for the creation of the

Neil Squire Society Neil Squire Society is a Canadian national not-for-profit organization that helps Canadians with disabilities through advocacy, computer-based, assistive technology, research and development, and various employment programs. There are four loca ...

. Throughout his childhood he had always been very involved in school, music and sports, and by the time he reached high school, he had won several awards for scholastics, service, band and sports. When he graduated, he was an accomplished basketball player, having been very successful at the provincial level. In December 1980 Squire, who had begun studying accounting at the University of Victoria, hit a patch of black ice only a short distance from his home. His car hit a tree and he sustained a C1/

brainstem The brainstem (or brain stem) is the posterior stalk-like part of the brain that connects the cerebrum with the spinal cord. In the human brain the brainstem is composed of the midbrain, the pons, and the medulla oblongata. The midbrain is cont ...

injury. This accident left him paralyzed from the neck down, unable to speak and reliant on a respirator. After many months of rehabilitation at the Shaughnessy Hospital Spinal Cord Unit, Squire began working with his inventor relative Bill Cameron to learn to use the "

sip-and-puff Sip-and-puff or sip 'n' puff (SNP) is assistive technology used to send signals to a device using air pressure by "sipping" (inhaling) or "puffing" (exhaling) on a straw, tube or "wand." It is primarily used by people who do not have the use o ...

" machine that Bill had created from an old teleprinter to aid Squire in communication. He learned to use

Morse code Morse code is a method used in telecommunication to encode text characters as standardized sequences of two different signal durations, called ''dots'' and ''dashes'', or ''dits'' and ''dahs''. Morse code is named after Samuel Morse, one of ...

, which was converted into words on a screen through Cameron's device. This original device was soon replaced by a computer. By the time Squire died of kidney failure on April 18, 1984, he had moved from Shaughnessy Hospital to an extended care unit at Gorge Road hospital in Victoria, BC. There, many volunteers worked with him and other patients in what had come to be called the Computer Comfort program. These volunteers had been looking for an appropriate name to give their efforts. They named their group the Neil Squire Foundation, later the

, and this organization has been helping persons with disabilities across Canada increase their independence ever since.

References

External links

* http://www.neilsquire.ca/about/history/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Squire, Neil 1984 deaths Canadian people with disabilities University of Victoria alumni Deaths from kidney failure in Australia