Packing boxes. Cooking dinner. Studying for an exam. Stretching before a race. Researching an item before you purchase it. There are millions of ways that people prepare for different things. Many times, we don’t even realize we do it—it’s habit. Some people feel the need to prepare for things more than others. Some people can just wing things and have them come off seamlessly. Not always, but usually preparedness and organization go hand-in-hand. Most of the time, if someone is an organized person, they also feel the need to be prepared.

“I won’t agree to do this many things again,” I said to my mom in early September as I was preparing for the Self-Determination Conference. She laughed and shook her head because she knows that’s not true. She knows how much I absolutely love doing presentations and talking with others. Like in many years past, I was asked to participate in many different things at the conference this year. It started in June or July. People sporadically began reaching out to me asking if I would like to do different things. I always say yes, but there’s a caveat—I need to know what I need to present on as soon as possible. While people do their best to get me the information in a reasonable amount of time, it’s usually not an ideal length of time for me. While I understand that most people can kind of wing speeches and presentations without putting an enormous amount of time in it, that’s not the case for me.

As I’ve explained in previous entries, I use an app on my phone called Proloque2Go to communicate. I’ll be honest—I don’t use it right. I never have used communication devices the “correct” way. I’ve never been a fan of using symbols and sequences to communicate. I’ve always preferred to type everything out that I want to say. I believe it’s not only faster, but it’s also a much more accurate way of communicating—rather than using preprogrammed phrases, I type out exactly what I want to say. Having said that, typing everything out does take some time. For spontaneously communicating, it’s usually fine because the person who I’m talking with usually know to wait. However, for long presentations, obviously typing everything out spontaneously, wouldn’t work. It’d take way too long, and I wouldn’t be able to cover hardly any of the information that I needed to. To solve this conundrum, when I have presentations, meetings, or anything that requires immediate response (that has to be semi lengthy responses), I preprogram things on to buttons. 

Now, when I say preprogram, most people have no idea what that entails. Before I explain how I do it, I have to tell you that the way I do it is probably very unconventional, but I’ve found it’s what works best for me. When I first learn that I have a presentation or something, I immediately ask what I’m presenting about or for an agenda (if it’s a meeting). I then begin typing what I want to say out on a Word document on my computer using my eye gaze system. Depending on how long of a presentation it is, this often takes days. A 30-minute presentation is about seven pages typed just to give you an idea. Once I have the first draft typed out, I copy all of it into an email and email it to myself. I then create a page in Proloque2Go for the specific event. I then start creating buttons on the page. I go back and forth between Proloque2Go and the email app on my phone—I use my double-jointed thumb to select and copy each paragraph from the email and paste it in Proloque2Go. Each paragraph is a separate button and, depending on what type of presentation it is, I label each button. I then have to go into options for every single button, and select “speak immediately” (the default option is to have the text displayed in the display box in the app and that would add more things to push while I’m presenting). In addition to programming buttons for each paragraph, I put a blank button between each button that has content. I do this because I’m apted to hit the wrong button if they’re right next to each other, so I put blank buttons in as spacers to help me be more accurate. While I don’t have to label or change the options for blank buttons, I still have to program a space for the button in order for a blank spot to appear.

After I get all of the paragraphs programmed, I then have to play each button to make sure it sounds right. Many times, I miss a word or something isn’t pronounced right on the app (for example, in order to have it say my last name, Ellingen, right, I have to spell it ell in jen). When that happens, I have to go into the specific button, copy the text, paste it into the Notes app, correct whatever it is, re copy the corrected text, and paste it back into the button in Proloque2Go. The process continues until each and every button sounds right. Depending If it’s a long presentation, I label the buttons using the alphabet. After I’m done programming the speech, using the Word document I originally created, I label each paragraph with the correlating letter of the button. I print out the labeled document and put it in the binder, so while I’m presenting, I follow it and know which letter I’m on.

You may see why I like to be prepared. I actually have no choice. I have to in order to be able to do many things. I had 138 buttons programmed with content for this year’s conference which meant, because of the spacer buttons, I programmed over 300 buttons total! It was a lot this year. Ideally, I would have had more time to prepare, but I understand that when you’re collaborating with people, things can’t happen as fast as you’d like. It was a pretty stressful few weeks, but I managed to get everything done.

While I would love to be able to just wing a presentation or a meeting, I can’t. Luckily, for me, I’m an overly organized person. As I’ve discussed in previous entries, I don’t procrastinate on anything. I have to be almost overly prepared for everything in life—it’s just who I am. Most tasks take me at least twice as long to complete, so time is a crucial component in my life. I have to consider the extra time I need in all aspects of life and try to be as prepared as I can for whatever life has in store!

***The views expressed here are strictly those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of InControl Wisconsin, the Network or any of our sponsors.