The Incredibly Complex Life Of Stephen Hawking

Learning To Communicate

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After his tracheotomy, Hawking initially used his eyebrows in order to choose letters on a spelling card. In 1986, he received a computer program called the “Equalizer” by the CEO of Word Plus, Walter Woltozs who had developed it for his mother-in-law who also suffered from ALS.

Hawking said that with the machine he could “communicate better now than before he had lost his voice.” Originally, he could produce around 15 words per minute and eventually he began to control his communication device with his cheek muscles after he began to lose operation of his hands.