Short Business History
by Arthur Heyer

An engineered arrangement of special aids around the use of my mouthstick has given me the functional independence I once dreamed about.

In 1963, at age 17, I became a C-3,4 Quad after a diving accident. Three months later I started using home-made mechanical aids to handle books and write and draw with the movements of my head. Then I went back to school, and 7 years later I graduated as a mechanical engineer.

During that 7-year period, my father and I were busy taking care of my special needs for special equipment. Among other things, we perfected my special writing aids, and I designed and had made a turntable desk and a mouthstick-operated drafting machine.

My urge to cope in a setting and environment not at all designed for a person with my very special needs (a quadriplegic in Guadalajara, Mexico, with a 6'6" stature and a calcified hip which prevented me from using a regular wheelchair - necessitated that we had to custom design one) forced me to make it my daily "hobby" and later my career the design of mechanical solutions to functional needs.

In 1976, a dream of mine to become 100% functional for work in an office situation was accomplished with the right set of specially designed equipment, including my first "U"-shaped Twin-Turntable desk. This happened during the second year of my work experience with Rancho Los Amigos Hospital as a Rehabilitation Engineer.

In 1978, my accumulated work until then was acclaimed as best rehab engineering designs of their kind at the 5th International Conference on Rehabilitation Engineering, Houston, TX. Later that same year, I left my job at Rancho for my own business, Extensions for Independence, over 20 years in operation at the date of this writing (1996).