JosephReidNZ

My name is Joseph. I was born in 1995 and live in the Bay of Plenty. Online I’m known as JosephReidNZ. I was born with Cerebral Palsy (athetoid) and use technology and social media as my primary method of interacting with the world. I’m half Kiwi & half Polish.

My early years involved several different, highly intensive, therapies. With assistance from a supportive and loving family (Thanks, mum)!

Due to a lack of oxygen during my birth, I have to live with Cerebral Palsy in my day-to-day life. In the very first days of my life, I had to stay in Tauranga Hospital, because I was very sick. 

The first five years of my life were very intensive and involved a variety of therapies. Travelling to Hamilton at one year of age, I began Conductive Education twice weekly. Mum & and I did that for almost three years. This is a program from Hungary and is predominately for children with Cerebral Palsy. I also sat in a Hyperbaric Oxygen Chamber (the one divers use for the ‘bends’) to try and improve the oxygen levels in my blood. After Conductive Ed, I had volunteers help me do exercises at home twice daily. 

As I grew, I started to learn to drive my first Power Chair. This was while I was still at Kindy! I lived in a small rural community, people recognised me and got to know me but… I couldn’t connect to people with a conversation because I am non-verbal. I wasn’t quite ‘world-famous in NZ’ like L&P, but Mum often said I was world-famous in Omokoroa!

I started at the local country school when I turned 5. Not long after, I made the papers using my new Hart Walker. The walker was 1 of my two main activities keeping me physically active, the other being swimming. It was quite handy that my Mum managed a swim school. 

During Year 7, I started going to a bigger school and began attending Bethlehem College. One reason I liked it there was that I was no longer the only person in a wheelchair. Here, my Christian faith was further developed. My Poppa was a retired minister and has been a significant influence in my life. My teacher aides helped me do the school work, but it was hard as I couldn’t talk, and there was no technology that ‘fitted’ me and supported me to communicate efficiently. This was a long and at times frustrating period that went on for most of my school life.

I have a good brain for thinking, but my body won’t listen to the messages to my muscles. My eyes are very good, and probably my most important body part. Mum and I developed a good way of communicating using my eyes, which we call ‘blink spelling’. Mum has developed shortcuts to predicting words, and I sometimes ‘draw’ letters, so we’ve gotten pretty quick over the years. People who are with me a lot get to learn it too. Some people just read my facial expressions (I am very expressive)! And ask me yes/no questions. Luckily, I’ve grown up during a period of substantial technological progress. My main problem was waiting for a tool that would work for me.

Early on I trialled clicker buttons which I pressed with my knee, hand, and chin, but these made me work so hard for very little progress. My first success was when I used the clicker program to access a standard computer. I used this for several years. It involved a grid on my computer screen which scanned directional arrows for the mouse, as well as left and right-click options. This, combined with an on-screen keyboard meant I could finally use a computer. The clicker was a good option at the time, but it took me a long time to move around a page and often left me hot and sweaty from all the exertion. But… I realized early on that using a computer opened up an entirely new way for me to connect with people.

My older sister, Amy, has been my technology mentor. She guided me through the initial setup of my online presence. As I started my internet journey, I became very inspired by Steve Jobs, the man behind Apple. What he aspired to and achieved in his short life was truly amazing. Steve revolutionized computer products for my generation.

My life changed in a big way in 2012 when I received an Eye-Gaze computer! The Eye-Gaze system is much faster and uses a lot less of my energy as it calibrates with my eyes and sees exactly where on the screen I’m looking. I can then click on things by maintaining my gaze for over half a second on the screen. The main thing is that it has to be set up correctly. This means it needs to be at the right height and distance from me to calibrate with my eyes. Using an on-screen keyboard, I can also type words, and it will ‘speak’ for me, using text-to-speech software. I have pages of vocabulary which I have customized to my preferences so that I can talk at any time. I still prefer to use my fully-functioned desktop PC, but there’s an inbuilt computer system on the device that I use too. A USB lead connects the two devices and with TeamViewer, I have full access use of both PCs. The more time I spent on the Eye-Gaze, the quicker I became. It only took me a week to figure it out. I also similarly connect my Android phone. The only difference from other users is that I don’t use my phone to talk to people.

I found that using the Eye-Gaze allowed me to share my humour and connect with people and ideas. Before I had my Eye-Gaze computer, I was able to go online, but I wasn’t able to type nearly as fast. For example, I could only “Tweet” about three times a day using the Clicker because it used to take me about five minutes to write one sentence. Using the Eye-Gaze computer is my access to the world because I am non-verbal people can’t easily understand me face to face. Connecting online allows me to communicate and create my community of friends. I have been able to get myself and my personality out there, away from the physical barriers I have. I understood pretty quickly that social media was a way for me to partake in a social life a lot more. Facebook is an excellent medium for friends and family to keep in touch. They see what I’m doing and enjoying, and I can see what they are up to. I use Facebook Messenger mostly to chat with people, from old school friends to new contacts I have made more recently. My Gmail account is used like any email account. Send and reply to messages, pictures, and jokes and subscribe to organizations. It is also how my Dad & and I connect when I’m not staying at his house. My favourite form of social media for many years was Twitter – it truly was a global community. I moved to Threads in August 2023 as I found it much more usable & and stable after the changes made by the new owners. The previous owner, Jack Dorsey, still follows me though.

Another great advantage of the Eye-Gaze device is that my passive interest in chess took an entirely new direction. Rather than rely on someone moving my pieces for me with a rather long-winded blink-spell explanation, I could do this all by myself. I’ve become quite good at chess and spend a fair bit of time on the popular site chess.com where millions of chess fans around the world either play games or improve their skill with lessons and puzzles. I’m currently (Sept 2023) #1 in the World for both puzzle rush & and lessons.

Being in contact with people I admire in New Zealand like Dai Henwood, Jeremy Corbett & and Urzila Carson from TV’s 7 Days led to me meeting them in person. I even created a Twitter account for my followers to keep up to date with a significant event in my life, my spinal surgery, in April 2013, you can find it here (insert hyperlink). Along with my favourite actors and comedians, I have also connected with some of my favourite musicians like Jon Foreman, the lead singer of Switchfoot. Another band I like is Anberlin, I got lucky when the lead singer, Stephen Christian, did a live video on Facebook, where he sang a song just for me. In 2021 the whole band dedicated a song to me. Just when I thought this was the ultimate experience I met them during their Australian tour. I got to see them perform twice during that tour but the meet-n-greet was just amazing.

I don’t feel like I’ve done anything different from any other young person getting onto Facebook and other social media platforms. I’m just an ordinary person to other people on Social Media. The benefit of using the Internet for me is I communicate with people whom I wouldn’t be able to otherwise, because of my disability.

As you can imagine, there aren’t many computers like mine in New Zealand and not many people who can fix problems when they happen. When mine breaks down, I’m isolated from my friends and the wider social media community.

I have now finished my school years and making plans for my future. I regularly show my life story presentation to schools & and businesses and am incredibly humbled by how motivating people tell me they find it. I take particular pleasure in seeing school children captivated by it and the questions they then go on to ask. This is perhaps my favourite part of the presentation process as I’m able to interact directly with the students. Also, if there’s enough time, I often get to have a game of (online) chess with one of the students. I love how amazed the children are at how easily I can play chess by just moving my eyes. 

With my passion for, & and understanding of, Social Media my ongoing plan is to further help businesses & and individuals develop their profile in this medium. Using my technology, I can use my knowledge to create an online presence for people & and organizations.

So, as you can see, being able to access social media has been life-changing for me. I am not isolated from my community of family and friends my world has expanded. I am now part of a global community where my disability is not a factor and I stand as an equal to everyone.