Astro Saulter is an incredibly talented artist from Jamaica. He was also born with cerebral palsy, which has confined him to a wheelchair for his entire life. But thanks to some special software, he can exercise his uncanny ability to create art.
Saulter paints using a computer that’s operated through software called EZ-Keys, the same program Stephen Hawking uses to work his computer. EZ-Keys shows a control panel that has a keyboard and a cursor on the screen that Saulter can operate using a switch on the headrest of his chair.
EZ-Keys is the commander of the Saulter’s whole system. It lets him navigate everything he needs from his browser to a whole slew of different programs, including the one he paints in, a vector-based program called Inkscape. Saulter’s art is whimsical and colourful and clearly influenced by his life in Jamaica. Technology has been equipping him to make art for the past 10 years. And his story is beautiful and right and it reminds us that sometimes, technology actually makes good things happen in the world. [Creators Project]