Disability Talks

Technology Helps People Succeed Their Dreams

Carrie Tynan

A friend sent me an article from Readers Digest about a young lady name Sarah Morris with severe cerebral palsy from Anderson, Texas. She writes a column for the Los Angles Dodgers web site. Sarah has limited mobility and gets around in a manual wheelchair. Despite her disabilities she is a very positive person who is very passionate about baseball and the Dodgers. Sarah stays connected to the sport by writing. At first she had her own website about the Los Angles Dodgers. Eventually with the help of Los Angles Times columnist Bill Plaschke who wrote about Sarah after meeting her. Sarah connected his column regularly through letters giving her critique of the Dodgers team. The article gain the attention of the Dodgers website manger Ben Platt who offered Sarah her first paid writing job. The assignment was to write a fan perspective column for their website. Writing and working on her website gives Sarah a sense of belonging and purpose in life. Writing is a great way for people with communications problems to share their ideas with others. I have used writing as a coping method to deal with stress in life. Through journaling I have discovered my strengths, problem solved and made goals to achieve.

Sarah uses several accessibility options to help with her writing goals such has a head pointer to hit keys on her computer key board. She also uses windows sticky keys on her computer to perform several options one at a time. I use many of my computer accessibility features to help me in my own writing career. An example would be increase font size for easier reading. I also use the computer on screen magnifier a great deal to help with reading web pages, email and documents.

One software program that assists Sarah that I found really interesting is called Wordq. This tool can be used with any standard windows writing program. Wordq provides spelling, grammar and punctuation assistance. The program uses word prediction meaning as you are typing the program suggests words to use. You choose the word by clicking on it. The program also builds a writing vocabulary of words you use most often. Many can benefit from this program especially those with learning disabilities such as dyslexia or learning a new language like English. Wordq is currently available in Canadian French and English this tool is used in school districts across Canada and the United States including Michigan. The following school districts in Plymouth, Westland and Dearborn Heights use this learning tool. This is a great tool to for kids to improve their grammar skills and bring the joy of writing into their lives. There are so many different products available to help you achieve your dreams from computers to assertive devices. The key is to find ways to overcome the roadblocks to achieve your goals. I am always looking for new ways to achieve my dreams. Personally I am always looking for new challenges it keeps life exciting. For more information visit the following sites http://www.wordq.com/.