For most of us, our voices emanate from our own vocal chords. For Kevin, our 20-year-old son with Mowat Wilson Syndrome – a developmental disability – his words are battery-charged, delivered by an app and wrapped protectively in royal blue silicone. And we love his voice.
By the age of two, we knew that Kevin had severe language issues. We held onto the hope that, by age 10 – an important milestone in speech development – he would have words with which to communicate. Perhaps it was naïve on our part; it didn’t happen. When he was 13, we accepted what limited progress he had made, stopped thinking about what he could not do and focused on the everyday things he could achieve.
Pat Onions is registered blind but cares full time for her husband David
HAVING suffered the sudden and devastating loss of her sight in her 30s, Pat Onions could have faced a very limited future.
It has been planned since 2012 but today’s closure of the Independent Living Fund (ILF), which helped severely disabled people top-up their social care support, is still a source of ongoing uncertainty for both disabled people and local authorities.
The fund, which was administered from central government, is being transferred to local authority budgets in England based on what recipients in their area were allocated, minus a 5% “top slice”.
