Jonathan has provided the words for his story, all I have done was help get them published. Let me begin by telling you a little bit about myself. During my birth, something happened to cause me to experience a lack of oxygen, which resulted in me having Cerebral Palsy. Cerebral Palsy is a neurological disorder where my brain does not process and send out signals to my body. I never know what my arms and legs are doing until they do it. My intelligence does not interfere, but I am highly intelligent. As a result, I have been confined to a wheelchair all my life. The work I do on the computer has to be accomplished using a switch and my right knee. Therefore, my computer work takes longer than most people.
For fun, I love to swim and scuba dive. I am scuba diving certified. Swimming allows me to get out of the house and take a break from sitting, all the time. In the summer I go to New York to my extended family’s home in the Catskill Mountains. I also attend Easter Seals Camp for a week, in Alabama. The only time I have time away from my parents, and they get a break from me. I swim, party, and zip line. Yahoo! Daily, I am on the home computer to widen my horizons and interact socially with people on Facebook. I also spend hours doing my homework. As a result, I am available for group work anytime up to 8 PM.
I am not currently employed, but after graduation, I am going to build and run a facility for people with disabilities. There will be activities to engage them and relax their muscles. However, my primary job will be to develop software that individuals with disabilities will be able to use, without too much effort.
Being disabled has not stopped me from getting experience. I am currently building a website for a company that sells plants grown in greenhouses. I have also created a website about my future career. In 2009 I designed and contracted a person in Greece to make a snorkeling mask for people with disabilities.
However, someone else beat me to the deadline. I now use his mask. I am currently proficient in C++ and Java.
My bio will be entirely different from yours, but I hope you enjoy reading it and can visualize my love and commitment to computer programming and that I hope to make the world of disabled people better, as I strive to bring them into the age of computer programming. Disabled people can and will do anything they desire or can dream.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Maryann
Student Author - Spring 2017
Maryann is a designer, front-end developer and family gal. I like to doodle over fonts and pour through code. Designing web interfaces has to be one of the most challenging and rewarding careers, next to teaching. Requiring constant upgrading of knowledge, meeting demanding deadlines and finding solutions to criticism. And that’s why I love it. In my spare time, I spend as much time with my family Geocaching and playing Pokemon Go. I have an incredibly family and patient husband, James and three wonderful children. Chances are, you’ll find me either in front of a computer screen, at school, or with my family.
