JOY GILSON

I went to school in the early '80's for social work. My undergraduate degree got me a job as a habilitation supervisor then counselor in a sheltered workshop for the mentally retarded and emotionally disturbed. I have moderate cerebral palsy - spastic ataxic athetoid left hemiplegia to be exact - what that means is that the part of my brain that handles movement and sensation on my left side does not work properly and I don't move or hold myself normally. And because I move in a different way than my muscles and skeleton were designed for, over time there are what the doctors call misuse injuries - the more you pound on the body abnormally the more you injure it. The job was physically demanding and exacerbated the damage just walking around was doing to my body. Less than two years into the job I had a permanent sprained ankle among other things - the only way to help me was to operate - after that was done I was told that I would never be physically able enough to go back to my job. I didn't want to believe it, so I tried. The physicians were right. So there I was, twenty-five years old with a college education, depending on my parents for rent money - and even for help with cleaning my own apartment -- and facing a future where I would only become more physically disabled.


I knew I needed to a way to make enough money to pay the bills and get someone to help me take care of myself. I figured I'd go for an MBA and I looked into it - all the grad school literature talked about their computer labs and how much time you could get to use the equipment - I'd never even seen a computer, but I was born having to figure out how to get things done that I couldn't do with my own hands. Guess that is why they said that I was a natural at programming - a natural at using technology to do what my body wouldn't do for me.

The technology has changed since I was initially trained but the great thing about the newer technologies and the Internet is that the training can come to you - through LIFT I have received training in some of the newer programming languages, so that I'm not only experienced: I'm up-to-date.

Now that I have become more physically limited and can no longer meet the demands of traveling independently to and from work, I can still work because programming is a transportable skill and one no longer need to be able to get to the office to work. Neither my family nor the government will need to take care of me for the rest of my days, I will always be able to do a job.

Oh, and one more thing: My employers don't notice it, but I'm dyslexic. Yes, I use technology to correct for the jumble I make of the words that I type.