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Like thousands of other teenagers, Sara Pyszka is a
nineteen-year-old high school graduate who plans to
go to college this fall. She lives in suburban Pittsburgh
with her Mom and Dad and her brother Michael. Currently,
Sara studies journalism at Wright State University in
Ohio.
Smart and vivacious, Sara loves to read and listen
to music. She even composes her own songs. Sara has
written songs that compare her life to the life of
books, her love for life and love of God. For a while,
she studied music under former Pittsburgh Symphony
Orchestra Conductor, Lucas Richman.
But unlike many of her peers, Sara has had cerebral
palsy from the time she was born. Unable to walk, Sara
uses a wheelchair and relies on her Mom for personal
care. She does not have the gift of vocal speech. And
although her condition denies her many of the gifts
of motor control, she has been gifted with mental astuteness.
After all, she’s nineteen and headed for college, right
on schedule.
Several years ago, Sara began communicating with a
DynaVox speech generator. A DynaVox is a high-performance
communication device known generically as an augmentative
and alternative communicator (AAC). Mounted desk-style
on her wheelchair, the screen on Sara’s DynaVox constantly
scans through programmed sets of letters, words and
symbols from which Sara creates phrases and sentences
by clicking a switch on her headrest, much the way
a computer user clicks a mouse.
For most people who use one, a DynaVox opens the world
of verbal communication, when the power of vocal speech
is absent or lost. For Sara, her DynaVox opened both
a world of words and a world of song.
It is easy to forget that despite her physical condition,
Sara's auditory perception is normal. Her ears are
as sensitive as anyone's and her love for music makes
her DynaVox a perfect complement to her musical talent.
As a matter of fact, it was Sara who discovered her
gift for music through her DynaVox. One day, while
honing her programming skills, she found the DynaVox
Song Editor feature and began teaching herself how
to use it. Coincidentally, at the time, DynaVox management
was considering eliminating the feature because they
didn’t think anyone was using it.
When Sara found out about the plan, she insisted that
her Mom tell DynaVox how important the feature was
to people with musical talent, but no voice with which
to express it. Cindy Pyszka, Sara’s Mom, did as Sara
asked and relayed her message to DynaVox management,
who took it to heart and discovered Sara’s talent to
boot.
Now, with more than three years in the public eye:
First singing her own songs at numerous public events
in the Pittsburgh area, under the tutelage of former
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra conductor, Lucas Richman;
then singing the Star Spangled Banner before 17,000
Cleveland Indians fans; leading the Republican National
Convention in the Pledge of Allegiance; dancing in her
wheelchair at the Presidential Inaugural Ball; and graduating
from high school, Sara sang the National Anthem at the
Pirates/Astros double header on July 19, 2005.
With talent and determination like Sara’s, who knows
what’s to come. She is a unique young woman. And she’s
only nineteen.
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