Profiles of Success - Karl Dean
My
name is Karl Dean, and I am from the United Kingdom. I'm a bright, happy and
easy-going person with a good sense of humor. I am quite active as I play football,
hockey and other sports. I enjoy going to the pub, cinemas and other places.
I like to joke and laugh.
In 1972, I was born with Cerebral Palsy. I am the baby of the family with three older sisters. You can imagine that it was a tough life growing up with three older sisters in a 3-bedroom house! Just like The Waltons on TV!
I first attended school at Frederick Holmes Special School from 1978 to 1989. My best moments at Frederick Holmes School were when I would dive off the hoist-chair in the swimming pool -- sometimes nearly drowning in the process. And going to see Mrs. Reid, as she was a good teacher and also a good laugh. I also enjoyed showing the teachers how to operate the computers. If I was starting school today, I would be attending a mainstream school.
I am a fighter, I never give up! I can remember the time I went swimming at school. I wanted to pick up a hoop from the bottom of the swimming pool but I couldn't get down to pick up the hoop. In those instances when I did manage to get down, I couldn't get back up so Kay, the swimming instructor, had to rescue me from drowning. (Thanks, Kay!) Anyway, it took me about six months to learn to dive to the bottom, pick up the hoop and come back up safely.
In 1989, I received a Light Talker™ from Frederick Holmes School just four months before I left. Because of my Cerebral Palsy, my speech has been affected and I am not always audible in an understandable manner. To overcome this I needed to communicate by using a Light Talker. Prior to that, I only communicated with people close to me. These were my family members and close friends, mainly because they understood me the best. When I met new people, it would take a considerable amount of time for them to understand what I was saying because it would take a while to get tuned in to my speech patterns.
After receiving my LightTalker, I started to speak more, both with the LightTalker and my natural speech. Therefore, my natural speech became much more understandable. I discovered that the longer I used the LightTalker, the shorter amount of time it took for my new friends to understand my natural speech. For example, three months after receiving my LightTalker I went to college and was provided with a personal helper who I had not met before. It took the helper three months to understand my natural speech. Eleven years later, it takes my new helpers an average of three weeks to understand me. I'm not saying the helpers fully understand what I'm saying, as there are always words they cannot decode, but they understand about 75% of what I say.
Sometimes I compose the first sentence to start off the conversation, then let the person read the screen or speak it out with the LightTalker. This provides the person with the topic of conversation. From that point, my natural speech kicks into gear. As we go deeper into the conversation, I will only use the LightTalker for the main keywords if the other party has difficulty with my natural speech. Will my LightTalker become redundant in my life? No, because without it I believe that I will limit myself to only communicating with the people who understand my natural speech (like the old days), which raises probability of decreasing my natural speech as well.
My final year at the university was the biggest challenge of my life. The final year of a degree is hard enough for an able-bodied person, so it was even harder for me, especially with a head pointer. I actually kept up with the able-bodied students in the final year. In the final semester of the final year I had a little more time, as I had to do a 10,000-word dissertation on augmentative communication plus a group project on top of the normal assignments. The final year was a good challenge for me, and I have met a lot of friendly people from all over the world. I hope my success will encourage both disabled and non-disabled people to take that uncertain step toward higher education. Twelve years ago the odds for me going to a university would have been a million to one. So everyone can achieve something in life, but you have work hard to reach your goal. I wonder how many people have earned a degree using a head pointer?
In the next ten years, I would like to own and operate a profitable web-design company. Some people may think I'm dreaming but ten years ago I said I was going to the university and everyone thought I was dreaming then also. I started doing freelance website design in October, 2000 and now I have added four clients within ten months. I am getting there slowly. Even Bill Gates started his business from his bedroom, so everyone has to start at the bottom of the ladder and work up from there.
A real dream for me would be to travel around the world for five years seeing all different kinds of populations and all the beauty spots in the world. After five years I would return to my house in Hull, and then set out every four months to revisit the best beauty spots for two or three weeks at a time. During the four months at home, I would set up a huge research building to research new technology for disabled people. Actually, I have been researching a new brainwave gadget. It is a headband plugged into the computer, which allows you to control the PC with your brain waves. The research information is on my personal website. Check it out at www.headpointer.co.uk send e-mail to: karl@headpointer.co.uk