Trainee Role Model

In November Jemima was invited to attend the One Voice family weekend in Blackpool. This event is for families with children aged under 12 using communication aids. Jemima was asked to give a short presentation to a parents' workshop about what she has done with the One Voice Teenagers and how she has benefited from it. She was also to act as a trainee role model throughout the weekend, alongside the adult role models who are always involved in One Voice events. This is her presentation.

Hello, my name is Jemima. I am 17. I live at High Shincliffe, near Durham. My school is Northern Counties in Newcastle. I got my Dynavox when I was about 8 but it did not work very well because I had problems with all the switches I tried. Finally I got my throat switch and I was really excited. It was the first time I could work something by myself.

Soon after I went to One Voice at Blackpool. It was a Harry Potter weekend and we did little plays. I really enjoyed it and it made me want to use my Dynavox. It was the first time I saw lots of people using communication aids to do interesting things. I went to Blackpool three times and I felt sad when I could not go again.

So I was very happy and excited when I heard about the first One Voice teenager weekend. I have been to all four and they were all great! I like meeting the One Voice teenagers, they are my friends because I see them every year. It is good working with the role models because they are quite young and cool, just a few years older than us, and they are doing interesting things like going to university or starting a business. That helps me to think about the future.

The teenager projects are a little bit more serious than Blackpool. We have lots of fun and great discos but we think about things too. We have done workshops about good and bad things about communication aids and thought about what we are good at and how we can help people understand what we need. We had an exciting weekend making the Listen to me DVD and music video. I thought that was fantastic because I am really interested in making films. Last summer we talked about transition. That was useful because it helped me think about what I want to do and my dreams for the future. Some of us did presentations at the family network day. The first time me and my parents saw role models doing presentations we were amazed but now we can do the same. One Voice has helped me become more confident and positive. Now I am learning to be a role model. I want to help younger children who are starting to use communication aids. That is one of my ambitions for the future.

Me and my dream

Last weekend, Jemima volunteered to give a presentation at the One Voice family network day. One Voice supports families with children using Alternative and Augmentative Communication, particularly high tech communication aids, and the annual summer weekend is one of the highlights of Jemima's year. Role model presentations raise the aspirations of children and parents by showing them what AAC users can do, and now Jemima and her friends, the first generation of One Voice children, are themselves ready to act as role models. The teenagers' workshops the previous day had focused on transition, and Jemima chose to talk about herself and one of her current ambitions:

Hello! My name is Jemima. I am seventeen. My favourite TV show is Dr. Who and my favourite movies are the Harry Potter films, Narnia and Prince Caspian, High School Musical and the Japanese animated films made by Studio Ghibli. I also like some of my parents' old films like Four Weddings and a Funderal and Sleepless in Seattle.

I'm profoundly deaf. I understand sign language. I like talking with my voice but I can speak more clearly with my Dynavox. I use scanning with a voice switch. That is slow and hard work.

I will stay at my school for one of two more years. Then I think I'll go to Northern Counties College. I want to study ICT and I hope to do some courses in a local college. I want to learn about film making. I was first interested in film making when my dad videoed holidays and family events. My first experience of how a real film is made was at the One Voice weekend in Blackpool in 2002. I loved the video. Then I made two Video Nation films for the BBC with my dad. I thought that was fun and interesting. We planned what we wanted to film and recorded me talking with my Dynavox. The first film was about me and my life. It was in a series called Voices. Then they asked me to do another one about Christmas. Last year I really enjoyed doing the One Voice DVD project. I liked working with Silverfish and seeing how they organised the filming and edited the film. I showed the DVD to my class when we made a film about our school for our Duke of Edinburgh Award. I interviewed someone who went to my school when she was a girl and has worked there for a long time.

Last month I learned about animation at the Tyneside Cinema in Newcastle. It was a workshop for teenagers to celebrate the tenth birthday of the Angel of the North. I see the Angel every day when I go to school. They showed us how to do animation with paint, sand, plasticene and cutting paper. I chose paper and talked about my idea with my Dynavox. Everyone's work was edited into one film for the Angel's birthday party. I am waiting to get my copy. I really want to do more animation.

I saved up my birthday money and last Monday I got a little video camera. Now I am going to learn to shoot and edit films. That is my dream for the future.