How Eye Gaze Technology Is Changing Lives at Demelza Hospice
When you can’t speak, are unable to sign, can’t reliably point, how do you tell someone you’re hungry? That you want a particular story? Or that something hurts?
For thousands of children in the UK living with profound and complex conditions, this is daily life.
And for a long time, the answer has often been: you wait for someone to guess.
But Eye Gaze technology is changing that.
By tracking exactly where a child’s eyes are looking on a screen, it lets them communicate through their gaze alone – choosing words, pictures, music or messages just by looking. For a child with limited movement and speech, that’s not just a gadget. That’s a voice.
Earlier this year, we were able to fund a replacement eye gaze communication aid for Demelza Hospice Care for Children. Here’s why that mattered.
Who is Demelza Hospice and what they do?
Demelza Hospice Care for Children supports babies, children and young people across Kent, South East London and East Sussex who are living with life-limiting or life-threatening conditions. They also support the children’s families – parents, siblings, grandparents – through some of the hardest experiences anyone can face.
Demelza is not a hospital. It doesn’t look or feel like one either. It’s a place where children with complex needs can have specialist nursing alongside the things any child deserves: play, friendship, time outdoors, birthday parties, music. Their care extends well beyond their hospice buildings too and into family homes, schools and the wider community.
Children who use Demelza’s services may visit for short breaks (giving exhausted parents time to rest), for symptom management when things flare up, or for end-of-life care alongside their families. Many spend time at Demelza for years; sometimes a whole short lifetime.
Eyegaze is a fully portable technology that tracks eye movements and allows children to control a computer without using their hands or a mouse.
What is eye gaze technology?
The principle is genuinely simple. A small infrared camera attached to a screen tracks where the user’s eyes are looking. Wherever they look on the screen for a moment or two, the device registers as a “click” – just like clicking a mouse, but with eyes instead of a hand.
That screen can show:
- Words and phrases to allow a child to build sentences
- Picture grids for choosing food, activities, music or rest
- Cause-and-effect games – gaze at a picture, and an animation plays, music starts, a story unfolds
- Storybooks and learning materials are controlled at the child’s own pace
- Environmental controls, letting the child change a lightbulb, turn on music, or call for help
For a child with a condition like Rett syndrome, severe cerebral palsy, certain neurodegenerative conditions, or after a major brain injury, eye gaze technology can be the only practical way for them to experience real two-way communication. It can also be used for play, learning and the everyday small choices most of us take for granted.
What does eye gaze give children?
“The Eye Gaze is honestly incredible. It gives children and young people a voice, a way to communicate, make choices, and be heard.“
Clare Large, Engagement Team, Demelza Hospice Care for Children
Three things really matter, and in ways that are easy to overlook.
Communication. The most obvious. A child who has been listened to but is unable to speak back can finally tell their family what they want, what they don’t want, and how they’re feeling. Carers describe the first moments of successful eye gaze use as transformative, not just for the child but also for everyone around them.
Choice. When you can’t move or speak, almost every decision is made for you. What you eat, what you wear, what programme is on the telly, and when you sleep. Eye gaze gives a child the chance to choose – even small choices – and that’s a kind of dignity nothing else replaces.
Connection. A child who can express preferences and feelings can be in real relationships with the people around them. They become someone with a personality, not just a patient. That changes how everyone – family, friends, staff – interacts with them.
It’s hard to overstate the difference this kit makes in a children’s hospice setting.
Hospice Aid UK was founded 25 years ago with a single, clear purpose: to raise funds that go directly to hospices, helping them to care for patients and families when they need it most.
Why did it take a grant from Hospice Aid UK to help Demelza Hospice?
A good eye gaze system isn’t cheap. Specialist hardware, calibrated software, mounting equipment and ongoing technical support add up to several thousand pounds per setup, and that’s even before adding in training time and bespoke content. A busy children’s hospice might need several units in active use at any one time – and because the kit gets heavy daily use, machines eventually wear out and need replacing.
Demelza’s existing eye gaze machine had reached the end of its life. The team got in touch with us here at Hospice Aid UK about funding a replacement, and we were delighted to award a grant of £5,115 to cover the cost in full.
These are exactly the kind of costs that fall awkwardly between major funding streams. They’re too specialist for general donations, too technical for many corporate sponsors, and too expensive for hospice budgets already stretched by rising costs. Children’s hospices in the UK typically receive only around 21% of their funding from statutory sources – the rest has to come from donations, fundraising and grants.
That’s the gap that Hospice Aid UK exists to fill.
A note from the people who matter
Demelza’s team got in touch afterwards to let us know what a difference the grant was making.
“I cannot tell you how happy we are that, thanks to Hospice Aid UK, we can replace our Eye Gaze machine.“
Kate Wheeler, Demelza Hospice Care for Children
What strikes us, every time we hear back from a hospice we’ve funded, is how much can hinge on a single piece of equipment. Not in a dramatic way – in a quiet, daily, week-after-week way. The kind of difference only the people doing the work fully appreciate.
How this happens in practice.
People sometimes ask how Hospice Aid UK actually works. The honest answer is: simply.
A hospice gets in touch when they need help funding a specific thing – a piece of equipment, a training course, a service they can’t otherwise afford. We assess the request quickly, often within days. If we can fund it (in full or in part), we transfer the money straight to the hospice’s bank account.
No grand application forms. No multi-stage interview process. No demands for accounts and impact reports stretching to dozens of pages. Hospices already do enough paperwork.
It works because supporters – generous people like you who give to us regularly or occasionally, large gifts or small – keep our emergency funding pot topped up. Without donations, we have nothing to grant.
What does your support mean to UK Hospices?
The Demelza grant happened because supporters made it happen. Every donation goes into the pot that funds practical equipment like this. We don’t take a percentage off the top, we don’t run hospices ourselves, and we keep our own running costs lean so the money actually reaches the people it’s meant for.
If you’d like to be part of the next grant, to a hospice we haven’t yet heard from, for a piece of equipment we don’t yet know about, your support will make it possible.
Why Does The Hospice Funding Crisis Matter To Every Family?
Even a small, regular contribution helps us plan ahead and reach more hospices with the funding they so desperately need. A one-off donation makes an immediate difference. A gift in your will creates a legacy that goes on caring long after you’re gone.
Whatever You Can Give, It Matters.
At Hospice Aid UK, we’ve spent nearly 25 years making sure hospices can be there when families need them. With your fabulous help, we can keep going.
If you’d like to know more about our work, explore our website or get in touch at info@hospiceaid.org.uk.
Donate Now
Share this post with someone who might need it.
Visit our Support Us page to find out more about supporting Hospice Aid UK or contact us for help and advice about your donation.
Find out more about our partnerships for businesses of all sizes and how to choose Hospice Aid UK as your Charity of the Year