A tireless campaigner and advocate for people with disabilities, Jonathan is nothing short of inspirational. Unable to speak, Jonathan communicates via a spelling board attached to a piece of perspex, with his communication partner reading his gaze to each letter.
A tireless campaigner and advocate for people with disabilities, Jonathan is nothing short of inspirational. Unable to speak, Jonathan communicates via a spelling board attached to a piece of perspex, with his communication partner reading his gaze to each letter. Through this groundbreaking system he is able to communicate to construct words, sentences, paragraphs, and whole pieces of writing, including an incredibly insightful and thought-provoking article for The Guardian in January this year.Jonathan believes passionately that everyone should have the opportunity to learn literacy, regardless of their condition and has worked tirelessly to change the way students with complex disabilities are educated. His blog www.eyecantalk.net inspires thousands of people every day. His petition #TeachUsToo, which urges the government to reform the special needs curriculum so that all disabled children have the opportunity to access literacy, has over 186,000 signatures.Jonathan does all this whilst studying for his Year Six SATs and has earned a place at a mainstream secondary school, starting in September 2017. In the words of Jonathan himself, “never judge a book by its cover; never look at a child like me and assume we are not worth teaching”.
