My name is Jay, I am 42 years old. I have cerebral palsy. I don't let that stop me because I think I live a pretty normal life.
I like to play poker, which I suck at, but it kills a lot of time. I like to watch sports. Go Yankees! And I bet on football games. I like to go to bars too.
When I first started to go to school they put me in a special school for kids with disabilities. The school was called Regional Day where the kids had the same type of disability like me. That's where I learned how to drive my wheelchair and how to use my communication device.
Back in the olden days, they didn't even have ones that spoke, so the first thing that the teachers tried was they got a piece of cardboard and put pictures on it. I had a headstick and if I pointed to the picture of an apple that could have meant that I was hungry or that could have meant I just wanted an apple. There were a lot of guessing games being played back then.
I still remember my first device it was called a Touch Talker. Back then I thought that was amazing, but thinking back about it today it wasn't as advanced as the techology today. I was still using my headstick and now I could write full sentences and tell everybody what I was thinking and what I actually wanted. I thought it was amazing because it could actually speak.
When I was getting yelled at by my mom, I could talk back and she couldn't get the last word in. She wasn't happy about that. Once I learned how to use my touch talker, the teachers thought I was smart enough to be mainstreamed in a public school in a general education class.
At first, my parents were hesitant because they were scared that the kids would make fun of me, but I wanted to take the chance. I felt like I wasn't learning enough and at a young age, I knew I wanted to go to college some day. My parents and the teachers decided to let me try it.
So, to start off I was in a typical 3rd grade class for half days. The first day of class the teacher let the kids gather around me and let them ask me questions to break the ice. They asked if they could catch my CP and questions like how did I go to the bathroom and I answered by using my Touch Talker. After that they felt more comfortable, I was doing fine and the kids were adjusting to me.
I liked it so much, that by sixth grade I decided that I wanted to go full-time because by that time I was going to the special school less and less. I was learning everything I needed to know at the middle school.
By that time PRC came out with a new device called a Liberator. I liked it because it had a better voice a bigger screen and a built in printer. One thing I didn't like was that my speech teacher wanted me to stop using my headstick and start using quarter row scanning. That was I had a switch by my head and the device had lights on it and the lights scanned the device in four quadrants and once I got to quadrant that I wanted and I had to hit the switch to stop it there. Then it scanned like five rows and once again I had to hit the switch to stop it at the row that I wanted. I still wasn't done yet then I had to hit the switch once it got to the key that I wanted. I felt that was a long process to get to one key I would rather use my headstick and directly hit the key.
My speech teacher finally won and I stopped using my headstick just because I wanted to look cuter for the girls. Now it was on to high school I enrolled to go to Steinert high school in my home school district. But, there was a problem. All the science classes were upstairs and there wasn't an elevator. I didn't let this stop me.
With my Liberator I had to write a speech like this and go in front of the Board of Education and explain to them why it was so important to put an elevator in so I could meet my graduation requirements and go to college. They agreed and within a year they put an elevator in.
At the end of four years of high school it was time to choose a college. There weren't too many to choose from because obviously I need a lot of care. We found one in North Carolina called Saint Andrews Presbyterian College that had a dorm for disabled people. They had aides 24 hours and note takers in the classrooms. The best part was I was still on my own and they couldn't tell me what to do.
So, of course I wanted to be like any other student who wanted to experience college. It was a small campus so instead of studying all of the time, I rode around campus looking for people to talk to and tried to make friends. After a few weeks I was riding around campus, everybody knew me and started to give me drinks. One time, I even tipped my wheelchair over trying to get back to my dorm and another time the police had to follow me back to my dorm. I guess I made a name for myself.
I have to say I miss those days. Yes, I did really graduate with a liberal art degree. After college, a new device came out it was called an ECO. I really liked it because It was a computer, a cell phone, and I could work everything that is remote control. I activated it by using something called eye gaze and that was I had to look at a key for a half of a second and it would activate the key. It was pretty amazing.
Now I'm using an Accent. It's basically like the ECO but the eye gaze is so much better. Now, I volunteer at the hospital. I have been doing that for 12 years. I take visitors where they need to go throughout the hospital and I even received an award for my service there.
For about a year now I hold a little group for people with disabilities to try to motivate them to live a normal life like I have. We talk about how to be a self advocate and how to try to better ourselves. One person actually got a job after years because he was so motivated by what we talk about. I think when people first see me they think I'm not smart or think that I cannot hold a normal conversation. But, people who aren't afraid to come up to talk to me quickly realize how smart I am and like that I have a sense of humor. You can't blame them for loving me.
