"I’m Bored!"

By Jessica Javor

My name is Jessica Javor. I’m a grade six student with cerebral palsy. I have a Mac IISI and programmable keyboard with which I can type out words and even entire sentences with a push of a button! Since I can’t control a regular mouse, I have my mouse programmed into my
keyboard. The mouse can even move diagonally by pressing one button.

My computer is my pencil case. I use it for my school work, leisure and communication. For word processing I use ClarisWorks, a combination of six applications. Everybody in my school uses it in the computer lab. As well as using it for writing, I use the drawing package in my art
class. My art teacher, Mr. Kirby, taught me to use the draw program when the rest of the class was using oil pastels. He gave me a hint to zoom pictures from 100 per cent up to 800 per cent whenever doing fine work or detail. He is teaching me to manipulate shapes on the computer to create the illusion of distance.

I’m sure your child has been asked to design title pages in school. I sure have! I design my title pages with Print Shop Deluxe (PSD). Print Shop Deluxe has got loads of graphics and borders that look fantastic. I use a program called Type Twister to add some pizzazz to my lettering. This program can twist words and add neat effects like layered shadows. I use them because the title pages look nicer and a lot neater than my own drawings.

Not to say that I don’t draw. And I love to colour. I have designed Christmas cards and all- occasion cards, which are sold at my treatment centre. Microsoft Word can resize and crop clip art imported from a CD for things like my newsletter, the "Red Balloon."

The "Red Balloon" newsletter is published on Bank Street Writer (BSW). My friends write articles to contribute and then I put together the newsletter. In my newsletter, there are regular features and guest columnists, and this issue has a cartoon. Our subscribers include Mrs. Carolyn Parrish, the Member of Parliament for Mississauga West!

I was once described as an e-mail queen! I have a modem and with it I can access TVO Online, a Bulletin Board Service. I can send e-mail, I can chat with other people who are online and I also have many computer pals who are on the Internet.

One of my pals lives in Penticton, British Columbia. She also has cerebral palsy, has an IBM computer and likes swimming and writing fictional stories, like me. She has just downloaded one of her stories on the Internet and I’m planning to publish it in the "Red Balloon" newsletter. She
has published her stories on KidPub, an online publisher of stories kids write.

I have a CD-ROM on which I can play games, look up information in encyclopedia like Encarta, Groliers and Bookshelf. I can even listen to music while I work. I am listening to Strauss, Wagner and Mendelssohn right now. My favourite game on the computer is "Where in the World
is Carmen Sandiego?"

I have recently been videoconferencing with students in North Bay. Videoconferencing is like a picture telephone using a computer, modem, special phone lines and a small video camera. During one of my videoconferences with North Bay, we discussed stamp collecting. We even showed some of our collections. My favourite stamp is one from Great Britain that shows the change from hieroglyphs to books to computers. I recently sent their stamp club a box of stamps. Maybe we will begin to trade stamps because of this videoconference.

I enjoy working with computers, but they do not isolate me. I can talk to people, play board games, write short stories to publish and show people. Computers allow me freedom to do things I wouldn’t be able to do otherwise.

(Jessica Javor lives in Mississauga, Ontario.)