Elijah Merlini, 21, has been a quadriplegic since birth and speaks only through eye and head movements. Thanks to his willpower and a talented special education teacher who has supported him since middle school, he has mastered AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication). This technique uses symbols, images, gestures, or technological devices to help express thoughts, desires, or needs. To communicate with others.
Elia has become so proficient at using the AAC method, which has allowed him to read Dante and Manzoni, that he has become a teacher of this technique in several schools in Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna. The young man uses the SymWriter app, which allows him to instantly match each word with a small drawing or symbol.
When you write text on SymWriter, the words are accompanied by symbols that represent them visually. These symbols can be easily recognized by those who have difficulty understanding written text, making it easier to reading.
The app offers a vast database of symbols used to represent words and concepts. For example, an apple symbol could represent the word "apple." Users can enter text and see the symbols appear automatically, or select them manually. Throughout his journey, Elia was accompanied by experts from the "La Tenda" Day Center in Florence, managed by the Zenit Consortium, which welcomes and assists people with disabilities between the ages of 18 and 65.
The cover image is taken from the “Consorzio Zenit” Facebook page
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- Ellie, the disabled girl who learned to swim thanks to Winter, a tailless dolphin
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