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The PATHWAYS DEVELOPMENT GROUP in Seattle, USA have designed some amazing switches and interfaces which allow disabled children to play Nintendo® consoles - you can see photos here of their interfaces for ALL THREE main Nintendo ® consoles:

Pathways Development Group in Seattle have now received CE Mark certification for their interface for the NintendoŽ N64 console. This means that this wonderful invention which allows disabled kids to play the N64 on an equal footing with their able-bodied friends, can now be sold in the United Kingdom and Europe, as well as other areas of the world.

UK distributors for the N64 interface are TFH Ltd, in Worcestershire - tel. +44 (0)1299 827820 or e-mail info@tfhuk.com, and if you're in the US or Canada, contact Mike Andrews at PDG (toll free) on 1-877-742-4604 or locally 1-425-742-4674, fax 1-425-745-9279, e-mail mikea@pathwaysdg.com.

See the Surplus Resources page for details of free videos showing these interfaces and switches in action, and for further background information, see Mike Andrews' report in our April Newsletter on how a 12-year-old girl with severe Cerebral Palsy was able to play a Nintendo console with great enjoyment, almost immediately - "her parents were amazed" .....

Testimonial from the PDG site: Nola Marriner, PhD, is a speech/language pathologist with over seventeen years of experience in serving children and adults with severe communication and learning disabilities. For six years Nola was Director of Speech Pathology Services at the world-renowned Children's Hospital and Medical Center in Seattle, Washington USA.

She has taught or participated in teaching a variety of augmentative communication and assistive technology classes at the University of Washington. Since 1991 she has been in private practice providing consultation, workshops, and therapy services to agencies and individuals throughout the Pacific Northwest. In July 1996 she opened Talk, Learn & Communicate in North Seattle, dedicated to providing additional services to children and adults with speech, language, communication, and learning disabilities.

Here's what Dr. Marriner has to say about Team Xtreme:

"We're using it in a couple of ways. First of all we're getting children with similar disabilities together to play. And that's actually really exciting because often there are not a lot of ways in which they can interact. And we're also using it with a child with disabilities to play with their friends or their brothers and sisters. So it can be a family interaction tool as well.

"... I became even more excited when I started seeing some of the children use it. I couldn't have anticipated the excitement that I saw."

Nola Marriner, PhD

Do you know a disabled child who could benefit from these marvellous inventions?

Why not take a browse around the PDG site, or e-mail Mike at Pathways Development Group for more information.