By Margaret Moore, PRC-Saltillo Blogger
Growing up in a family that didn’t believe in letting my Cerebral Palsy stand in the way of my enjoyment and pursuit of life’s extraordinary experiences, I have participated in many unique endeavors. I am a para athlete, using my walker to run road races, triathlons, and 5Ks as part of adaptive sports organizations. I have been ziplining, parasailing, boating, and adaptive rock climbing. I have my master’s degree in creative writing and, most exciting of all, on October 2, I will be celebrating the publication of my debut memoir Bold, Brave, and Breathless: Reveling in Childhood’s Splendiferous Glories While Facing Disability and Loss. The book follows my progress from birth to my graduation from elementary school and depicts my experiences growing up with a disability, losing my father to stomach cancer just before my second birthday, and being raised with two older brothers by a single mother who enabled and encouraged my participation in regular education, athletics, and recreational activities such as Girl Scouts. My book is the first in what will be a series of memoirs about my life. It is now available for preorder on Amazon: Bold, Brave, and Breathless: Reveling in Childhood's Splendiferous Glories While Facing Disability and Loss.
My involvement in these activities has often been noticed by heads of organizations and media reporters, and I have been invited to share my story in the hopes of helping other people. When I accept these invitations, I always ask that I be provided with the interview questions a few days in advance so that I can arrive at the interview with my responses already programmed into my AAC device. While I don’t mind preparing a simultaneous response, coming to an interview with my answers already in my device gives me the liberty to type what I would like to say in the way that I would like to say it without worrying about the time constraints of the interview.
Whether it is for an interview, a class discussion, or some other planned conversation, I encourage AAC users to advocate for themselves and request to receive the discussion prompts and questions in advance so that they, too, can fully share their thoughts on the subject.
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Communicators In Action