Tips from a Cripple: My own Brother

My little brother has moderate cerebral palsy. He cannot walk and has extreme stiffness in his extremities. My little brother cannot wiggle his toes or make a peace sign with his hands. I am telling you this because I want to give you a reference as to how things like putting on shoes and handwriting are extremely difficult for him. But in school my brother was classified as POHI in the special education system because he has no mental retardation and was considered an average learner in his K through 5th grade classrooms. My brother was assigned a para-educator to help him with things like writing his thoughts on worksheets, zipping up his coat, and transpiring him from a wheelchair to his classroom seat. My brother was used to having much of his school work done for him, until technology came into our lives. In 1993 (my brother is 19 now) the school gave my brother a laptop to do all of his course work, and my brother went from having a school helper be his 'shadow' the entire school day, to a school aid that just came to help him transfer from class to class, get him ready for recess, and to help him with his lunch tray at lunch. I asked him, for the purposes of this blog, how was the change to having someone helping you all day to having technology help you be independent (almost) all day. My brother responded: "at first I felt really intimidated by the whole thing because I was the only kid who was using a laptop at the school. But when I did my first assignment and found the freedom that comes with writing down your own ideas exactly how they have played out in your mind, I realized the power this laptop had finally given me." I just wanted to give a personal story of how technology has changed one person's life. Mission accomplished!