Schuyler's Australian Adventure

Schuyler Hudson is a remarkable young woman with a brain malformation that changes how she experiences the world but does not stop her from living a rewarding and meaningful life. Since the age of five, Schuyler has used assistive speech technology to help her communicate with and experience the world around her. Now eighteen, Schuyler is preparing to graduate from high school and begin her adult life, using AAC technology to help her find her own way even with her profound differences.

This summer, Schuyler has the opportunity to participate in a leadership workshop with a small group of fellow AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication) users. The Dare to LEAD Workshop  will take place during the 2018 International Society for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (ISAAC) Conference  on the Gold Coast, Australia on July 26, 2018. Schuyler and the other eight selected participants will develop a plan for turning their proposed visions into future realities, initiating their journey to become leaders locally, nationally or internationally at ISAAC.

Please help Schuyler raise the funds to attend this unique and potentially life-changing opportunity with her AAC-using peers, as well as the leading professionals in the field of augmentative and alternative communication.

(NOTE: Schuyler cannot travel alone due to her disability, so we are raising funds for her plus one parent.)



Schuyler says:

Hello, my name is Schuyler Hudson, I’m eighteen years old. I would like to come to Australia and learn about how to lead and help people that are different like me. My little monster is called polymicrogyria, or P M G. It make it hard to talk, and sometimes it make it hard to understand things. It makes me different from everyone else. I want to be different, but I want to pick how I’m different.

I call my PMG a little monster because it is super small in my brain and it makes me a little hard to talk and remember something from a long time ago. I don’t think my monster is bad because he he is a part of me. I don’t think he’s a real monster but it fun to think of a little monster in my brain.

Because I want to travel and help, learn at Australia and I can be comfortable using my iPad to talk, that other kids can be comfortable using their iPad, I can teach them how use to talk to other people with their devices, I can meet new people who become my friends who have different kinds of monsters.

I hope you will let me come to Australia, and learn how to help people like me, and also help people in the whole world give people like me get a chance.