Princeton University Athletics
Players Mentioned
King and Clark Earn Prize in TigerLaunch Business Competition
February 24, 2010 | Field Hockey
King and Clark, both juniors, proposed a project called 'Cocherapy' to bring speech therapy to people who cannot afford one-on-one sessions with a therapist after receiving a cochlear implant. Cochlear implants allow people who are deaf or severely hearing impaired to hear.
The proposed product is an online tool for speech therapy. There are two major steps to getting a cochlear implant: the surgery itself and rehabilitative speech therapy. Once a cochlear implant is switched on, the sounds that come out of it, heard by the user, do not really correspond to normal sounds. Therapy is required for cochlear implant users to understand the robotic noises that they begin to hear, and also to be able to speak correct sounds back.
While the surgery is often covered by insurance, the speech therapy rarely is. The hourly rate for one-on-one sessions can be prohibitively expensive for many people who receive these implants, so they have to either find a way to pay or struggle without therapy.
King and Clark's proposal of an online tool could be used to complement one-on-one sessions for those who can afford a few sessions a month and can improve the rehabilitation of those who have no access to therapy at all. By putting a system on the web, costs can be contained, and social networking tools can be taken advantage of in allowing cochlear implant users across the country to connect with one another. A difficult part of dealing with cochlear implants is that the community is widespread with low density, making it hard to find other people in the immediate area with whom one might discuss aspects of the procedure.
King and Clark were co-winners of the social-entrepreneurship award and earned a $3,000 prize. They were the only varsity athletes to reach the semifinal round of the competition.
For more information on the TigerLaunch Business Competition, visit the links below: