Khamani in conversation
CENMAC Student ambassador Khamani recently completed his GCSEs and is now studying Film and TV at college. Khamani aspires to be a media presenter when he completes college.
Khamani uses assistive technology to support his learning and he has been interviewing a series of inspiring people who also use assistive technology (AT) and/or augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) to support their communication.
Watch Khamani in conversation below.
In this conversation Khamani talks to Ellise Hayward about her job as a motivational speaker, a disabilities correspondent for Jill Dando News and how she uses assistive technology including eye gaze to support her communication and to promote awareness of cerebral palsy.
Ellie will be our keynote speaker at our annual Communication Works South event taking place at the Charlton Athletic Football Club on Thursday 6th June 2024.
Toby Hewson uses high tech AAC to communicate and works as a motivational speaker. His aim is to teach children and young people that disabled people are just like themselves, they just do things in a different way.
Beth is a Paralympian competing in the sport Boccia at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. She is also a public speaker, a Social Policy Graduate and a great advocate for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) and communication inclusion.
In this conversation Khamani finds out about the high tech AAC Beth uses to communicate, her journey to the Paralympic Games, the exciting places she has visited, the people who inspire her, and more.
Abdi Omar has cerebral palsy which prevents him from talking in the usual way so he uses high tech AAC to communicate. Due to his limited mobility, Abdi uses his head to control his mouse. You will notice that he has a small dot in the middle of his forehead – this is part of his AAC devices and is called a NuPoint HeadPoint system that uses an optical sensor to track the small reflective dot on his forehead. It converts the natural movement of Abdi’s head to accurately control the pointer on his screen. Key selection is activated by dwelling over the desired key.
Abdi has worked as a motivational speaker for more than ten years inspiring and motivating other people with disabilities to overcome the barriers they face.
In this conversation Khamani talks to Krupali Parshotam who works as the Education Policy Coordinator at Thomas Pocklington Trust (a national charity that supports blind and partially sighted people).
Krupali has a vision impairment and is a white cane user. Khamani was interested to find out more about Krupali’s job as well as the assistive technology she uses in everyday life.
He also found out about the free resources the Thomas Pocklington Trust provides for students. Find out more about Thomas Pocklington Trust: https://www.pocklington-trust.org.uk/
In this conversation Khamani chats to Georgina Studd about her use of assistive technology to support her communication.
Georgina has cerebral palsy but has not let this stop her from living independently and attending college where she studied performing arts and media.
Khamani chatted to Daisy who is in 6th Form College at Burlington House about the assistive technology she uses to support her studies.
