My advice to you if you have a disability, whether you use AAC or not, would be to follow your passions and seek what you desire in life. Anything is possible. And who knows, maybe your story will inspire someone else to reach their goals too.

Aimee Grayston

In my previous blog, I shared with you how I began using a communication aid, the highs and lows of my journey through school and how my device impacted this. This time, I'll share what I got up to after doing my GCSEs right up to what I'm doing now.

Life after GCSEs

After completing my GSCEs, I worked voluntarily for children's services at my local NHS trust. The purpose of my role was to suggest ways that the service could be improved. Through this position, I discovered I had a passion for helping to improve other people’s lives. I did tasks such as writing articles, creating and delivering presentations and attending and giving my views at meetings. I used a laptop controlled by my communication aid to produce articles and PowerPoint presentations whilst programming speeches on my device. Completing these tasks with a communication aid was a lengthy process. However, my colleagues always understood this and gave me time to complete my work. Therefore, I did not get overwhelmed. Furthermore, they ensured I was given time to communicate my thoughts during meetings. During this time, I moved on to the latest communication aid by Liberator. This was particularly beneficial in the next stage of my life.

Although I adored my voluntary job, after some years of doing it, I began to want to get on a career path. As I loved helping improve people's lives, I desired to have a profession, which allowed me to do that. Nevertheless, I didn't know what I wanted to do. Furthermore, I lacked the qualifications to pursue a career properly.

Open University

Therefore, I pursued a health and social care degree with the Open University whilst I decided what I wanted to do. As a part-time student, I did that for seven years. I chose to be part-time, as I thought the workload would be more manageable, spreading it over a longer period. My degree was all online and mainly involved reading articles and watching videos about various health and social care topics. As with my voluntary post, I used my laptop, controlled by my communication aid to access the course, do research for assignments and write them. Overall, I could complete the course exactly like my peers and only encountered one problem. This was that I took much longer than other students to complete my work. Having to do it using my communication aid was an incredibly slow process. I needed the deadlines for almost all my assignments extending, which most of my tutors were happy to do. There was just one who was reluctant to do this. However, after I reported their decision to their manager, they were told they must give me the extra time because I had extenuating circumstances.

In the summer before my third year, I decided to try eye gaze to work my communication aid, hoping it might help me complete my work quicker. I tried this access method a few times before. However, I always was not accurate enough using it, so I returned to using a switch. Yet, this time, I managed to become much more accurate using my eyes, and it took over from my old access method.  

Nevertheless, it only partially helped speed up the time it took me to complete assignments. The process still was very time-consuming. In the later years of my degree, the assignments got more challenging and needed to be longer. On average, completing them took me six weeks to two months with an extension. In the last two years, my tasks became so challenging and required to be so long that I had to work six or seven days a week on them. This is because if I had not done this, it would have taken me many months to complete them rather the previous time frame. However, this significantly impacted my mental health and exhausted me.

Moreover, my communication aid was the first to have an advanced computer system. Shortly after I began using eye gaze, I decided to do my course using this rather than on a laptop. This is because I thought it would make my studies easier and even quicker. I downloaded Microsoft Office onto the system to write my assignments and used its internet browser to access my course. As I thought this improved the studying process. For example, I could research and select information for assignments with my eyes instead of doing this by scanning on a laptop. Although studying this new way was quicker, it only had a small impact on the time it took me to complete assignments. This was still very time-consuming. Despite the difficulty I faced during my degree, I reached the end of my degree and got a 2:1 (this is a good grade).

Moving forward

Following completing my degree, I’m currently setting myself up in business, delivering workshops in schools about what types of physical disabilities there are. Additionally, I plan to set up another business in time, where I lecture at universities about what it is like to live with a disability. I anticipate that I’ll face some challenges being an AAC user in these ventures. For example, if two presentations have to be scheduled close together, I’ll find it challenging to prepare them. Yet, I’m determined to overcome any adversities and do so in a way that enhances the services I'll offer.

To end, I don't want to sound full of myself; however, I'm incredibly proud of what I've achieved throughout my life. I couldn't have done any of it without my communication aids, though. They have allowed me to reach my potential. Therefore, I owe a depth of gratitude to Liberator for inventing these remarkable devices. If they hadn’t been, my life would have lacked meaning and be unfulfilling. Moreover, as you can see, people with disabilities can enjoy success academically and in their working life. Sometimes, all it takes is the right equipment, people and, like with anything in life, some hard work.

Aimee has Cerebral Palsy, which means she can't walk or talk. She uses an Accent 1400 to communicate, which she controls with eye gaze.