Diyoko’s story has been featured on our blog before. One of our proudest success stories, Diyoko overcame a terrible accident that left him partially disabled and after training at Sparrow in Business Administration was employed in the Admissions office. From when he first had his accident Diyoko has been working with Evey and Gail Jones from the Department of Speech Therapy and Audiology at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital. As Evey put it, Diyoko’s speech disorder was a structural one, which meant it was caused by the reshaping of his physical face and mouth rather than any cognitive reasons. This frustrated Diyoko as he tried to communicate with his office mates Adelaide and Montshadi, as they could not always understand him.

Fortunately, technology has been growing in the field of alternative communication and Diyoko was identified as a prime candidate to receive an augmentative communication device from the hospital which would help him to communicate through his computer. The device is made up of an adapted mouse and joystick that reads into a computer programme. Diyoko will be able to preprogram common words and sentences and select the appropriate one when he wants to communicate with anyone in his office. His office mates will also be able to suggest any phrases they feel he may need to use to communicate with them or for them.

The programme has been a godsend to Diyoko and his team, and it gives him even greater independence and allows him to be more productive than before. Whilst the setting up process is still underway as Diyoko and his office mates all need to be trained in the software, everyone is excited about what it will mean in terms of Diyoko’s professional life.

“He will be able to participate even more at work,” Evey explains. “Dioko will be able to prepare for future meetings by pre-programming whatever information he wishes to present and bring forward. Every now and then, we will be checking up on him to make sure he is transitioning smoothly to augmentative communication, as we want this to be as uncomplicated and easy as possible for him. He will be able to do so much more, not only in his workplace but in his personal life as well.”

The simple act of communicating shouldn’t be something that hinders anyone in this age of technology, and thanks to the generous donation of Chris Hani Baragwanath, Diyoko has overcome another barrier and will achieve even more at Sparrow FET College.

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