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  • [MUSIC PLAYING]

  • ROBBIE IVEY: You come into my room,

  • you know my two favorite passions.

  • The outdoors and sports.

  • [CHEERING CROWD]

  • It's a place where I can just be me.

  • [GUNFIRE ON TV]

  • Look behind you.

  • Nobody else can judge what I do, or anything.

  • And it's a great place to be.

  • BILL WEIS: The first day I was at Robbie's house,

  • it was very evident that Robbie's bedroom

  • was his universe.

  • CARRIE IVEY: Ready?

  • ROBBIE: I was diagnosed at the age of five

  • with duchenne muscular dystrophy, which

  • eats away at my muscles cells.

  • CARRIE IVEY: The dystrophin protein

  • is not made in the muscle.

  • So the muscle tends to waste away.

  • At age 8, he started to slow down.

  • 12, he was in a wheelchair.

  • At 19, he's got very limited use of hands.

  • SPEAKER 1: Ah, that's crooked.

  • CARRIE IVEY: But, you know, he's got the same thought

  • process every other 19-year-old boy has.

  • Cars, girls, video games.

  • ROBBIE IVEY: My mom is like my main advocate.

  • She's just there for me.

  • Helps me do basically every function I need to do.

  • CARRIE IVEY: Want a drink?

  • ROBBIE IVEY: And almost everything

  • was hard to do without calling for assistance.

  • Before Bill came along.

  • Bill's our tech genius.

  • CARRIE IVEY: I met Bill through the muscular dystrophy

  • association.

  • He asked if we needed anything.

  • And I said, well, if you happen to know

  • anybody that knows anything about voice activation,

  • be phenomenal.

  • BILL WEIS: Hey, Google.

  • Turn on feet.

  • GOOGLE: OK.

  • Turning on the feet.

  • CARRIE IVEY: A couple days later, I had a phone call.

  • BILL WEIS: Carrie mentioned right off

  • that Robbie's bed is something he can no longer control.

  • He would have to holler to Carrie

  • to make a small, incremental change in the bed

  • so he was no longer sore.

  • CARRIE IVEY: I was up every hour, hour and a half.

  • I was getting no sleep.

  • Robbie was getting no sleep.

  • BILL WEIS: And so I saw how coming up

  • with a solution for Robbie bed would

  • have an impact on both of them.

  • ROBBIE IVEY: He had to do a lot of research

  • to figure out how to make this work.

  • BILL WEIS: Hey, Google.

  • Turn on head.

  • GOOGLE: You got it.

  • Turning on the head.

  • CARRIE IVEY: And from there, little by little,

  • he kept adding, and adding, and adding.

  • ROBBIE IVEY: Hey, Google.

  • Turn on TV.

  • [DING]

  • GOOGLE: Turning on TV.

  • ROBBIE IVEY: It was kind of, what

  • does my imagination allow me to want to have voice activated?

  • Hey, Google.

  • Turn on row one.

  • [DING]

  • Hey, Google.

  • Turn on fan.

  • [DING]

  • [FAN WHIRRING]

  • Hey, Google.

  • Call Carrie.

  • GOOGLE: Calling Carrie Ivey.

  • [DIALING]

  • CARRIE IVEY: (ON PHONE) Yes, Roberto?

  • ROBBIE IVEY: I am able to do stuff on my own.

  • And at let's me give my mom a break a little bit.

  • CARRIE IVEY: I expected not to get any sleep

  • for the rest of my life.

  • And here, you know, I can get out and take a walk.

  • Sometimes I need that hour, hour and a half of sanity

  • to get away from, hey, Google.

  • Hey, Google.

  • Hey, Google.

  • [DING]

  • SPEAKER 1: Also these.

  • He has no choice.

  • I bought them for him.

  • ROBBIE IVEY: So is that all the shirts I'm taking?

  • BILL WEIS: Voice activation opened up a whole new world

  • that I don't think many people really can understand yet.

  • Robbie's got a lot more freedom than he had before.

  • ROBBIE IVEY: Most people think that just because you're

  • in the chair, everything's disabled.

  • But my main attribute's my mind.

  • CARRIE IVEY: I've always had the hopes

  • that he would go to college.

  • He's an honor student.

  • He's incredibly smart.

  • BILL WEIS: He applied for four or five colleges,

  • and has acceptance letters from every one he applied to.

  • ROBBIE IVEY: After 19 years, it's kind of about time

  • to start going off on your own.

  • Doing your own thing.

  • BILL WEIS: Robbie's bedroom back home helped

  • Robbie gain independence.

  • We've tried to replicate that same environment

  • here at the dorm.

  • ROBBIE IVEY: Hey, Google.

  • Turn on the head.

  • GOOGLE: You got it.

  • Turning on the head.

  • BILL WEIS: He's in an environment that's all new.

  • And I think to know that he hasn't

  • lost all of that capability that he gained

  • will be comforting to him.

  • [DING]

  • But beyond that, he'll be challenged in ways

  • that hasn't anticipated yet.

  • CARRIE IVEY: He has a drive.

  • He wants to succeed.

  • He wants to be something.

  • And as long as he pushes, that's what he's going to get.

  • Bye, Rob!

  • ROBBIE IVEY: Bye!

  • I'm excited for this new chapter.

  • And I feel like everything's in front of me.

  • [MUSIC PLAYING]

[MUSIC PLAYING]

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