Data analyst with ALS types with his eyes to help modernize companies

Otto Knoke, who has been living with ALS for two decades, harnesses his data skills to help transform companies and modernize industries with the help of Eye Control, a feature in Windows 10 that allows him to type with his eyes.

The 60-year-old data analyst calls himself the “oldest nerd of Guatemala” and is well-known in the country’s business community, especially after he helped update the banking industry by bringing ATMs there 20 years ago.

But even as his career was blossoming, his muscles were beginning to fail him. In 1998, Knoke was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, and was told he had two years to live.

Though he’s now one of just 5 percent of ALS patients to survive for more than 20 years, he’d gradually had to pull back from his work. Trying to communicate had become a struggle. Then last year, his life took a new turn.

Read more about Knoke at Microsoft Stories.