Profile
of Success - Shelley Lane
My name is Shelley Lane, and I use a Pathfinder with an infrared pointer to communicate with people. I was born with Cerebral Palsy and didn't breathe for 15 to 20 minutes after I was born. Communication wasn't easy for me until I received the Liberator in February of 1998, and then I received the Pathfinder in the summer of 2002.
Let me start from the beginning. . . I used (and still do sometimes) communication boards that my mom made me out of cardboard when I was young. I didn't know how to make full sentences at that time, so I pointed to the picture "bathroom" if I needed to go to the bathroom or I pointed to "drink" if I needed a drink. And my family, my elementary school teachers, and a couple of my friends would know what I was trying to say.
Then I used a Touch Talker to try and enhance my vocabulary. With the Touch Talker, I had to push the buttons by hand, but I don't have that good of hand control. I would hit other buttons rather than the one I wanted to push and I got frustrated. I felt like I couldn't communicate freely. I carried my communication boards with me all through middle school and the first two years of high school in addition to my Touch Talker. One day, a teacher at Dunbar High School had a pair of plastic glasses with a dowel rod attached to them. She put them on me, and I went to town on my Touch Talker! I found it much easier to access the keyboard using the plastic glasses with a dowel rod than by using my hand.
After they found out that I could use a pair of plastic glasses with a dowel
rod attached, I got a Liberator with an infrared pointer to try for a few weeks.
I was doing well with the Liberator - better than anyone expected. I think they
knew that they had found something that worked for me. I wasn't going to shut
up now that I had a way to have conversations with people.
The Liberator changed my whole outlook about being able to talk for myself.
I'll admit that I was a little scared at first because I hadn't done that before.
I was afraid the other students would laugh at the voice from my Liberator.
Once I spoke, I heard no laughs from the other kids. It was great! I had fun
participating in classes. I began to get comfortable speaking with my communication
device.
In my senior year at Dunbar, I took a speech class and it helped me get more comfortable speaking in front of people. That isn't to say that I hadn't spoken in front of people before, because I had done it often. I do the scriptures at the Jesus Parties once a month. It is very encouraging to be able to do the scriptures.
Being in a speech class really enhanced my self-esteem. We did speeches, monologs, duo acting, and stories so we were in front of our classmates a lot over of the semester. I think I enjoyed the duo-acting the best because I was teamed up with this funny guy, Caleb. He was so hilarious! We stayed after school a couple of times to work on our skit, but we didn't get much acting done because we were both laughing hysterically each time one of us would mess up. Then the day came when we had to present our skit. Everything was going perfectly fine until Caleb accidentally said one of my lines and I started laughing really hard. Then he finally realized that he accidentally said one of my lines and he started laughing too. It took us a couple of minutes to calm ourselves down and continue our skit, but we finally did. That has got to be one of the funniest days of my life!
I have graduated from Dunbar High School. I am not employed, but I volunteer a lot. I sometimes work part-time for my Special Needs minister, Brewster, at Southland Christian Church doing typing. I am also involved in the bookstore at church and have helped with communication presentations at the University of Kentucky. My goals for the future are organizing events, writing a book, serving as an ambassador for camps for people with disabilities and to work as an ambassador for Prentke Romich.
It has been a few years now since I started using communication devices with an infrared pointer attached to my glasses. Yes, it was difficult to learn the language of the communication devices, but it has been so worth it. I now have engaging conversations, access to the computer, and a voice for Jesus. As said by an unknown author, "A disease took my speech, but my words have a voice."
Shelley Lane