When you think about it, and from a certain point of view, the freedom to communicate is the most basic of all freedoms. Everything extends from the ability to deliver messages. Think about it – even now, I’m communicating a message to you; I just chose my lunch by communicating a message. My thesis communicates ideas. And so on. The freedom to communicate is, to me, the most fundamental of all freedoms.

As a disabled person, it is only through my lightwriter that I can communicate my full personality. Had I not had Colin, life at uni would have been very isolating, especially in my undergraduate years. Through Colin I can show myself – my true self. Most simply. Imagine trying to explain to someone that you want to dress as a girl if you can’t speak clearly, or at all. What I’m trying to say is that, for people like me, it is only through the ability to communicate that our full personalities can be realised. I can’t help but wonder how many more disabled people are like me and Lyn, or are different in other ways, but don’t have the ability to show it.