Kathy Jo's
original profile was posted in August, 2001. This is an "update" from Kathy.
At the age of two I attended a school designed for children with disabilities. When I was four years old, I was the Cerebral Palsy "poster child." I was mainstreamed in a regular school system in Lancaster. After my junior year of high school, I worked as a clerk/typist at Social Services as an On-the-Job Training student. I attended Southwest Tech in Fennimore, Wisconsin taking data entry and accounting.
After graduating in 1992, I started updating residential listings for telephone directories. I find my job to be very rewarding. I type names, addresses, and telephone numbers into my computer and then they are integrated into the directories. I receive comments each year for being very accurate. Using "themes" on my Pathfinder, I preprogram the things that come up a lot in the directory that I'm working on (like the area code and the prefix, names, street names, city names, etc.). This way, I only have to activate one or two keys, instead of having to type the whole word(s). My Pathfinder and computer combination make it possible to do my job. I have completed several directories from Iowa, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin the past 11 years. I also have a small side-line job of making personalized greeting cards.
I am currently using a Pathfinder with Unity 128 (my communication device ). I am now 32 years old and live with my parents on a beef farm near Lancaster, Wisconsin. My family consists of my father, my mother, and three brothers. I also have nine nieces and nephews. My family has been a tremendous support and help to me over the years. They get me out whenever they can, especially my parents, for none of my brothers live nearby. I enjoy participating in games and social activities with my family and other people in the community.
My hobbies are reading, working on the computer, making greeting cards, and collecting Precious Moments & thimbles. I may be interested in doing some thimble swapping (and story swapping) if someone is interested in emailing me and getting acquainted.
I can walk with help and enjoy walking almost every day. With my work, personal cares, and therapy, my days are pretty full.
I am really involved on the Internet and am on several ListServers. My e-mail addresses is kjp@tds.net.
I would enjoy hearing from other AAC device users. I would enjoy hearing from anyone and everyone.
Kathy Jo Pink