Back to School: Technology

I’m frequently fascinated by stories of individuals with disabilities using technology to further their education. Videos of valedictorians using assisted communication devices to deliver their grad speeches or university students using the same programs to defend theses leave me speechless.

Parents, and even younger individuals, often ask me what I used in school and share about their aides of choice. Things have definitely changed since I started school!

To assist with writing, I was trained on a computer from about six years old in the first grade. Each day, we had to write something in a journal. While everyone was writing in theirs, I would go to a computer lab with my aide and type mine. I’m not sure about the other kids, but my journal entries almost always detailed some fantastic story about monsters, prehistoric beasts, or cartoon and video game characters coming to life!

Case in point

Around Grade 5, I started using a computer for more serious work like book reports and other assignments. Two years later, in junior high school, I was given an electric type writer to assist with my work. I took it between school and home, and was responsible for getting my work printed before class. Failure to do so meant no work, which meant a detention, so I got in a habit very quick!

In high school, I was the first student in the area to be provided with a laptop (the Acer pictured above), which would help with homework and many essays. This was in 1999.

At the time, some people thought that would give me an unfair advantage. On one hand, being the only student in the entire area with such a device, I can sort of see where they were coming from. On the other, the laptop’s contents included Word, Excel, PowerPoint, an Encarta CD, Pac-man, and Dig Dug, and not much else, so it wasn’t like I was going to be able to hack into the school or anything.

I did receive a couple “upgrades” over the years, though: my Art and Comm-tech (think computer art/design) teachers convinced the school to provide me with Corel Draw, and as a reward for getting good grades one years, my parents bought me some Star Wars game demos! That’s right, DEMOS!

Later in college, I got my own laptop (with much more on it than the last). Many of my teachers used eLearing and uploaded notes, presentations, and documents to an online location, so I didn’t need to worry about writing all that much. I did experiment with Dragon Naturally Speaking, a program that converted my speech to text in a document. Fairly useful for assignments requiring info-dumping, but not for much else, at least in my experience.

That's the gist of my technology story. Pretty dated stuff by today's standards, but I guess I was a pioneer of sorts. If this was twenty to almost thirty years ago, it'll be interesting to see how much tech develops in the next couple decades.

Cheers!

Back to School: Aides

Looked up "Aide" in Google

Part one of the Back to School series, which will now include more posts, because more ideas!

Going through school, I needed a fair bit of assistance. Most of that assistance came in the form of an aide.

Starting all the way back in Grade Primary, I had a full-time, one-on-one aide help me out through the school day. When I was little and couldn't do as much on my own, my aide did a lot, like helping me on and off the bus, do school work, and even assisted with walking. As I got older, the help became way less physical.

I had many aides throughout my schooling. My family still gets Christmas cards from my first. The aide I had the longest was from Grades Three to Seven. This woman went from literally holding my hand to walk when she started working with me to smirking after I'd have lunch with a girl in junior high.

In the eighth grade, my parents and I decide to go with a male aide because of things like gym class and other issues where having a woman with me would have been uncomfortable. Someone who was less of a "Mom" figure.

In high school, help from my aide came mostly in the forms of carrying books and scribing for me, since I tended to hold my breath after writing for long periods.

On the first day of my last year of high school, Grade 12, I ran into some issues. Just mere moments after getting to my locker, my aide told me that the school wanted him to assist full-time with a resource room, which meant I would be on my own. Not wanting this, I spoke with the school's senior guidance counselor about my situation.

One of the perks of being a disabled student was that over the summer, I was given an opportunity to organize my classes for the year, within reason, to avoid stress and over-excursion. I worked it out to each semester consisting of two heavier, more academic classes, a lighter class, and a free period. Going with this, I was able to work it out so that my aide was with me for the two academic classes, and would help me with extra things like exams or going on college/university tours later in the year. I would be on my own for the free period and other classes. By the middle of first period, the issue was fixed!

College was different when it came to personal help. I experimented with using a note-taker, and made use of assistance with exams when I had them but, ultimately, technology proved to be more useful and I was able to do much more on my own.

Cheers

Back to School Series

The Rare Writer is going back to school!

Not really, but to kick off the start of the school year, I want to write a couple of posts about some of the school-related things people have typically asked me about over the years, like having an aide, what subjects I liked and didn't, or about being included in classes and activities.

I also want to do an entire post about college. Not about everything, but about the experience of just being in college.

Looking forward to doing this over the next (hopefully) couple of weeks. Stay tuned!

Cheers.

Handicapped Space: Melora

A little while ago, I wrote a post about disabled characters in science fiction movies and programs, and why there's probably a lack of them.

I've recently started binge-watching Star Trek on Netflix. I'm up to Deep Space Nine, the franchise's third series and my favourite. About halfway through the first season, I found the episode that's inspiring this post: Melora.

The episode's title character is Melora Pazlar, a Starfleet ensign newly-assigned to Deep Space 9. Melora's species is from a low-gravity planet, meaning that in "standard" gravity, she's disabled and requires aides like crutches, a wheelchair, and walking-frame.

The episode starts with DS9's main crew ensuring that the station meet's Melora's needs. Ramps are being installed and barrier-free quarters are being set up. Apparently the Cardassians, the species in the show that built the space station, weren't big on accessibility.

During a quick brainstorming session, the crew even propose the idea of Melora beaming from place to place via the station's transporter (as in "Beam me up, Scotty") as a means of getting around. An idea that I, as a physically disabled Star Trek fan, would have died to see!

The rest of the episode mostly involves Melora trying to do things on her own, putting people at arm's length, then accepting help from members of the crew, including Dr. Bashir and Dax, the station's medical specialist and science officer. Melora and Bashir even form a relationship.

There are a lot of the same tropes and cliches associated with many disabled characters, like bitterness, ableism, and acceptance, but done with a sci-fi twist. The best part, in my opinion, was the transporter bit, but another stand-out scene was one where Bashir develops a treatment (cure) for Melora that would enable her to walk unassisted in standard gravity environments. She's excited at first, but eventually decides against it, saying that the cure would forbid her from ever returning to her home planet and would technically make her a whole separate species, not human, but also not her own.

Reading more about the character and episode online, I found a couple interesting little trivia bits:

•  The actress who played Melora prepared for the role by taking a wheelchair through a shopping mall
•  The writer who created the character was disabled, and drew on his own experiences during the process
• Although she only appears once on-screen, Melora figures more-prominently in Star Trek novels set after the TV shows and films

I've said repeatedly in this blog that whenever I find something that combines disability with my various geeky interests, there will probably be a post about it, and since Deep Space Nine is one of my all-time favourite shows, this was just plain fun to watch and write about.

Cheers!

Joubert Conference - Baltimore 2019

It's been just over a week since the 2019 JS conference in Baltimore. I would've posted sooner, but work and stuff.

It was a fun week, filled with family, friends, and lots of good American junk food!

Since Baltimore was within driving distance, my family left pretty early the Wednesday morning of the conference. After a decent nine-hour trip, we made it to the hotel, which was conveniently located in the middle of Camden Yards and Baltimore's Inner Harbour so there were plenty of things to see and do over the week!

I made it just in time to see the end of the My Life With JS presentation which, this year, was being done by two younger guys, one of whom's family I've known since the Minneapolis conference six years ago. Very well done, from what little I was able to sit in on.

After that, we met some people and had dinner with a few of the other Canadian families in attendance. We would make a point to stick with our fellow Canucks as much as possible throughout the rest of the conference.

After dinner, the family registered.

As you can see by those ribbons, I had lots to do during the week, acting and volunteering as a board member, and leading another discussion group for the older youth.

Speaking of those folks, after registering, I was asked if I wouldn't mind visiting the area set aside for the older JS individuals and socializing for a bit. Right away, I was greeted with lots of big hugs, high-fives and handshakes. Now, I've known most of these people (can't call them kids anymore!) for several years, and this conference I was impressed by how much more mature and sociable everyone was.

The conference's first full day started off with a group session about adults with JS led by my parents, with me attending as their visual aide and sounding board. It went very well. Lots of people, great discussions, and sharing of resources. I got a lot of nice complements over the next few days, even though some of those were directed at me and not them. Still though, I was very proud of them both!

When that was done, we had the rest of the day off, so we went out and toured around Baltimore's Inner Harbour. Very nice area!

There were lots of ships, including restored vessels and submarines that are now museums. There was an aquarium which was a big draw for a lot of the conference's attendees, and a really cool-looking Ripley's Believe It or Not. There wasn't enough time to see it all, but I would absolutely make a return trip for it.

We boarded a water taxi to take us to the other end of the harbour. There, we toured around and took some photos

Long before the trip, the one thing the family had agreed to do was crab, which is famous in Baltimore. So, while walking around, we found a small restaurant that served the city's delicacy.

I can't speak for my parents or sister, but my eyes were definitely bigger than my belly! They had everything. We got crab cakes, tater tots with crab dip, crab cake sandwiches, and I got a crab pretzel, a giant pretzel topped with crab dip, crab meat, and cheese!

Between the awesome food, Colonial-era building, and reggae music, I could've stayed there all day! But, we went back across the harbour and did some shopping. I got a couple shot glasses (which I collect), some chocolates from a fun little sweet shop, and what looks like a pretty cool book of Edgar Allan Poe stories.

The next day was my day to do stuff. After an early breakfast, I took the morning to relax. That afternoon, I led a discussion group for the teens and young adults with JS about successes and challenges. Like before, it was fun and lots of people participated, but this time everyone there seemed more engaged and the conversations were a bit deeper, with some people bringing up issues like dating, bullying, and feeling left out at school and with friends. One girl actually asked if everyone could talk about one thing that makes them sad, which is what led to the discussion about bullying and feeling left out. Such an awesome group. I was pretty floored, to be honest!

That evening was a Dad's night and Adult social, so my Dad and I got a bite to eat at the hotel's bar beforehand. There were a couple other families there, as well. While we were waiting for our meals, the young son of a friend of mine came over and showed me something he had just drawn. Being a fan of superheroes, he also wanted to talk to me about all the latest Marvel movies. He said he liked the usual popular heroes like Thor and Wolverine, but then surprised me by liking Shang-chi, a fairly lesser-known character set to appear in Marvel's next phase of movies. It was pretty cool!

After dinner, my Dad hooked up with some of the other fathers and went out. I went to the Adult social and met a few people, including a young woman I had met after my parent's session the day before. It was fun, and we connected at breakfast the next morning.

The last day of the conference began with various Board member duties. First a quick meeting where new members were introduced, then a general meeting where conference attendees got to meet the Board, learn what we've been doing, and ask questions or make suggestions.

After this, my family went to Washington, D.C. We drove a little and got a subway train to the city.

Honestly, the subway was probably my favourite part of the whole excursion.

We got to D.C. and walked around. It was incredibly hot that day and there was a lot of walking so admittedly, I wasn't in the best of moods. Still, we did see some pretty neat sites, like the US Capitol building, Washington Monument, the White House, and the Smithsonian, which I really want to go back and see, properly!

I WILL be back for you!

That evening was the dinner and dance. Beforehand, we got our family photo and one with many of the Canadian families.

A bit of dancing and a lot of socializing. My father introduced me to a group of young couples from Norway, Denmark and Estonia (he had met some of the guys during the Dad's Night). They were all super-friendly and talked about reading my blog. So, shout-out to any new European followers out there!

Said all the goodbyes, got a Pepsi and relaxed, and that was it.

The next conference is in Seattle, which would be great to attend but is already looking a little expensive, so we'll just have to see.

We took our time coming home, so we could stop at Hershey, Pennsylvania. We used to have a Hershey's chocolate plant not too far from us, so it was really exciting to go.

Hershey's Chocolate World was nuts! For one, it was packed. Two, so much chocolate! I loaded up on all kinds of Reese Cups, as well as Payday bars which I can't get here in Canada.

The family went on a tour, which seemed pretty standard at first, but was actually an interactive amusement park-type ride with all sorts of characters. Very fun!

We took the next day to shop in Syracuse, New York, and made it home that night.

Once again, another great conference and vacation.

Cheers!