The best feature of the treetop office, Joe might say, is the girl who comes in on the hour, sprawls across the desk and sings his nonsensical code — sometimes rapping, other times Christmas carolling — before abruptly retreating to her own lair, where she’s also writing, except in English.
… but enough about my day.
Rob Rummel-Hudson has been writing online since the mid-’90s. I remember reading — in elementary school, on my dial-up AOL account — his post when his wife was newly pregnant, and the one announcing their daughter’s birth, and the one about how his toddler didn’t talk and the ensuing years of trying to learn why and finally his post about polymicrogyria, the rare neurological disorder it turned out Schuyler has.
Today the 10-year-old, who fears little and loves monster movies, communicates using a pink electronic speech device, like she demonstrated at Christmastime to a TSA agent:
“I can’t talk,” Schuyler says simply, her hand on her throat, but even as the listener begins to make that face, the one etched in unwanted pity, Schuyler is reaching for Pinkessa, impatiently waiting for it to power up so she can tell you that her name is Schuyler, and she’s ten years old, and she has a dog named Max and a hamster named Swee. She’s broken, and she knows it, but she’s got a hell of a fix for that, and she’s waiting for you to be impressed. Which you should be. (via)
Her first “big box of words” cost $10,000 a few years ago.
RH had this to say today:
iPad will change everything for [assistive technology] users like Schuyler. EVERYTHING. (@rumhud)
Schuyler’s Monster is a 2008 memoir, now available on iPads everywhere.
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