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Living life to the full celebrating cerebral palsy, speech and hearing impairments and using Augmentative and Alternative Communication AAC
Living life to the full celebrating cerebral palsy, speech and hearing impairments and using Augmentative and Alternative Communication AAC
I believe that dreaming, whether awake or asleep, comes from a place deep inside each of us.
Sparked by passion, unconscious wishes or a desire to achieve something special in life.
The aim was to share my personal views, experiences and opinions with specific spotlight areas relating to my lived experience of cerebral palsy (CP), dysarthria which creates speech and eating challenges, and a hearing impairment.
Everyone likes to be liked, and for some people it seems that saying no is harder than for others. In the past I’ve been made to feel bad, that saying no is my fault. I’ve been scared or afraid of how the other person may act or behave, and I...
When I started out employing personal assistants at the age of 12, as a family, we considered all of the different titles the role may be called from carer to support worker and personal support assistant. Speaking to friends who already had paid team members we settled for ‘personal assistant’...
Is it right or fair that a woman should be chosen to represent her nation over a male who has a better competitive track record? Boccia is a mixed gender sport, and definitely in England there are more male players than females. In 2018 the IPC and BISFed decided every...
Due to the pandemic I have been doing a lot of video conferencing with people I normally see in person. In face to face conversations some people understand my speech, and for spontaneity and speed my personal assistant often repeats what I’ve said verbatim. When I use my communication aid...
I’m sharing here events that interest me or where I have an active part to play. Let’s hope we all get back to ‘normal’ soon, but meanwhile please note there are plenty of digital events.
AAC Camp 30/31 July 2022 and Pre-conference workshops 30/31 July 2022. Main conference “Communication Beyond Borders” 1/8/22 to 4/8/22. For more information visit https://isaac-online.org/english/conference-2020/call-for-papers-2020/
You can read my latest blog here. All my posts are related in some way to my cerebral palsy, my speech impairment which I augment using AAC, and/or my hearing impairment.
It was a pleasure to be interviewed by Thea from the University of York Alumni Voices recently. This was for an online article about my time at the University of York and my Paralympic boccia selection. Those of you who...
The bags and cases have been packed, unpacked, repacked, weighed, and weighed again, and still need some tweaking. Packing for a boccia camp or a holiday is always a military operation. Packing for the Paralympics takes on a whole new...
Every now and then I have a niggle of self-doubt, asking myself “am I good enough?” Growing up in mainstream school I was the only disabled pupil with a power chair and communication device. Then at special school in my...
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