Jessica Johnston is an outgoing junior at Russelville High School in Conway, Arkansas where she lives with her supportive mom, Joanna and her stepfather, Bill Peters. She is fully mainstreamed for all of her classes. English is her favorite class because she enjoys writing poetry. Like any other goal-oriented individual, after graduating from high school Jess would like to attend the University of Central Arkansas and live independently. “I want to major in psychology because I like helping people,” she expresses.

Since Jess has fairly intelligible speech, her Liberator serves as a backup means of communication when people can’t understand her. Primarily, she uses her Liberator as a writing tool to access her computer to do her homework. The biggest challenge she has had to overcome so far was moving to another town when she was entering the eighth grade. “It was hard to make new friends being in a wheelchair but I made the best of it ,” she express.

She also is able to give presentations with her Liberator. She speaks about her life and disability issues. She has spoken in Arlington, at the Developmental Disabilities Conference, and at many other engagements.

Jess enjoys horseback riding, bowling, and cooking. Cooking is a very interesting hobby for her. “One of my friends is so patient with me. She lets me cook with her even though I get food everywhere and it takes twice as long,” says Jess.  Her favorite thing to cook is pudding.

A wonderful article was written about Jess and her mom and stepfather. It was published in River Valley Living. If you would like to read this article on Jessica and her family, please click here .