She started at the district as a program specialist involved with the tech committee. McKee worked with many Department of Education ‘exceptionality groups’ in the Pasadena School District before teaching special education in the Claremont Unified School District for nine years before she would retire. Ginny McKee had taught special education in California for 37 years. In the second grade Hughes attended Danbury School in the Claremont Unified School District where she was introduced to assistive technology. “I get asked a lot if I got tired of all the different kinds of therapy that I was involved with, but I wouldn’t have met some of my best friends, outstanding teachers, and awesome assistive technology developers if it weren’t for all my various disability activities.” “I experienced my disability as a part of life that was as natural as it could be,” she said. Hughes wrote some of her responses on WRISE, a text-to-talk app on her laptop.
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After countless therapy sessions and assistance through Conductive Education, Hughes quickly learned how to independently sit on a stool without back support, how to walk with a ladder device on wooden ski-type slats and how to crawl on all-fours. She remembers feeling frustrated because she was unable to move like other kids. Such a disability might cause a person to doubt their ability to navigate life, but for Hughes, this disability is a obstacle, but hardly a showstopper.Īt the age of 3, Hughes was enrolled in the Conductive Education Program in Claremont, which helps children with neuromotor disabilities develop skills to function in society. CP can cause stiff muscles, spasmodic movements and speech impairment. Hughes does not have control over her limbs, which makes everyday functions like walking and eating difficult. This type of CP causes abnormal, involuntary movement. Hughes was born with athetoid cerebral palsy, a neuromotor disorder caused by damage to the developing brain. In addition to using her laptop to write, draw and speak, she also operates an iPad to compose complex sentences, gestured sign language and has her aide Vazquez to help translate. Unlike the other students who would solely use their voice to communicate, Hughes turns to technology. Although she has her laptop and iPad to assist in communicating, she always makes an effort to say hello. The 20-year-old communications major is accompanied by her personal care aide Maria Vazquez. Elina Hughes waits patiently in her lever drive Wijit wheelchair as people move freely in and out of the conference room to use the microwave.
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