A Prince George woman has been invited to speak at an international gathering of researchers studying various disabilities.
Bree-Anna Robertson, 30, has managed to capture global attention of those who study intellectual and developmental disabilities, despite the fact she speaks using a special computer equipped with eye-gaze technology that speaks the word or symbol on which she focuses. She will address the World Congress of the International Association for the Scientific Study of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities in Melbourne, Australia, that takes place from August 15 to 19.
Although Bree-Anna needs help with all her personal care, including eating, dressing, bathing, and moving, her parents, Terry and Gordon, always encouraged her to live a self-directed life. She enjoys traveling, time with family and friends, engaging with the community and even attended college.
"We don't see that Bree-Anna's life is that unusual," Terry said, speaking on Bree-Anna's behalf. "We give Bree-Anna the kind of life she deserves and the life she wants to live. Our focus has always been to do what we can to make her life as exciting as possible given all her clear limitations."
Vela, an organization that provides information and mentoring to individuals with disabilities and those supporting them to take greater control of their lives, connected with the Robertsons and soon Terry was working with them.
Vela offers a Microboard option so that Bree-Anna's family and friends - those that know her really well - can form a simple non-profit that can help with decision making for Bree-Anna so she can live her life as she wishes. About half of the 1,000 Microboards in B.C. ask for funding, while others ask only for guidance, said Linda Perry, executive director of Vela.
So for example, Bree-Anna likes to volunteer for the Salvation Army Christmas Kettle campaign and to help her get there and support her while she is there, a care worker can be hired to attend with her. The small board of family members, including Bree-Anna, can make the request for government funding for the outing. That makes the board the employer of record and it can work with Bree-Anna to set up services best suited to her.
Perry asked if she could tell Bree-Anna's story to use as an example at the 2014 International Association for the Scientific Study of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Conference in Vienna. Perry had seven minutes to make an impact, so she talked about the girl in Prince George living an extraordinary life and Bree-Anna's story got major attention.
"Particularly in Europe, people with Bree's level of complexity just don't have the kind of lives that she has and that kind of blew them away."
Based on that conference Perry was asked to speak again. This time at the Zero Project in 2015, an amazing philanthropic organization that holds a best practices conference at the United Nations in Vienna, added Perry.
"They wanted me to expand a bit on Microboards and Bree's story and again, it grew and people were saying they wanted to hear more about this young woman and what she's doing," said Perry. That presentation got more attention and Perry and Bree-Anna were invited to attend this summer's event.
"This is an amazing opportunity for Bree-Anna and we think this could create many new opportunities for others that experience significant levels of disability," said Terry. "Gord and I are still trying to wrap our heads around all this. We're just trying to do what's best for our little girl. We don't see it as an usual life and yet clearly, other people think it's extraordinary."
The family is currently fundraising for the $11,000 it will take to get her and her caregivers to the conference.
Bree-Anna needs to be in business class with one main caregiver who can lift her and care for her during the flight because she can't sit for that length of time. She needs to be able to stretch out and business class offers that option on the 15-hour flight to Melbourne.
"We're not rich but if this is an opportunity for our daughter to have an experience unlike anything she'll ever have again we need to make a big effort to try and pull it off," said Terry.
"Look at all her disabilities and she's not going to let that stop her."
Perry and Bree-Anna will be speaking in Prince George at Ignite, a provincial conference for people with disabilities, hosted by AiMHi at the Civic Centre on June 24 at 10:30 a.m.
To help raise funds for the trip to the World Congress visit https://www.gofundme.com/breeintlspeaker
