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Help make history

"In front of a computer"

by Robin Mayhall

Like others here, I'm also afraid of being looked at as disposable. Because I'm physically challenged by severe rheumatoid arthritis, I don't get around as well as my healthier friends. I am not very physically active, and I am easily fatigued, so I sometimes don't even participate in less-physical activities from sheer tiredness.

However, put me in front of a computer and I can write an article, format a document, lay out a newsletter, design a graphic, develop a whole web page. Thanks to technology, I'm a contributing member of society. But it scares me to think that, one, society might move in a direction that values the things I can do less, or two, that I will eventually become disabled to the point that I can't even use my computer.

I know that amazing advances have been made in technology that allow people to control computers with their voices, small movements, a breath, even eyeblinks. I hold on to that ... for one thing, it means someone out there still values people like me enough to give us the boost that is all we need to continue to contribute to the world. But it all comes down to money, and I'm scared sometimes that I'll get to a point where no one around me is willing anymore to pay for my treatment. I'm not married (who would want me?), have no kids (can't get pregnant), and my family's not filthy rich. I'm on my own.

I guess that I would just like to know that there's a community out there somewhere that makes me not alone.

Copyright © (1999) (Robin Mayhall). All rights reserved.

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