A remarkable story about an amazing young woman
I recently attended a conference held at the BT Centre and organised by the Good Things Foundation (on whose board I have sat for six years – I step down tomorrow). The event was all about the power of the Internet to change lives for the better.
The most inspirational address came from a young woman called Molly Watt. At first, she looked unremarkable, although she sounded unbelievably confident for one so young (she is 23). But then she told her story.
Molly explained that she was born severely deaf and introduced to IT at the age of just 18 months (only then did I notice her hearing aids). She went on to tell us that, at the age of 14, she was registered as blind (only then did I notice her guide dog at the corner of the stage). The cause of her deaf blindness is a condition called Usher Syndrome.
Today she has an app which enables her to download software from anywhere in the world to make necessary adjustments to her hearing aids and she makes good use of the iPhone, the iPad and the Apple watch.
Molly has created a company to advocate and advise on assistive technology and describes herself as an inclusive technology evangelist. Certainly she took the conference by storm and illustrated powerfully how the right technology and a positive personality can profoundly change the life of even an individual with severe disabilities.
You can check out her web site here.