People often take the ability to communicate for granted, but when you grow up with a sibling who is nonverbal, it changes the way you look at the world.
Archer Calder is a 16-year-old high school student from Utah. His sister is 14-year-old Della, who has a rare genetic condition called Bainbridge-Ropers syndrome. Even though Della isn’t able to speak, she and her brother are very close. Last year, Archer was searching online for an app that might help Della express her needs, wants, likes, and dislikes.
However, he found that the available apps were too expensive, and didn’t offer everything he was looking for. Since Archer has always loved coding and computer programming, he decided to make his own app. Apart from that, Archer was determined to make his app better than the rest, completely open source, and free. That’s how Freespeech was born.
Archer said he decided to help his sister communicate because he wanted to hear her thoughts, but he also had a deeper reason. Growing up, he had a stutter (口吃) that kept him from expressing himself. It took him four years of speech therapy to overcome the difficulty, and the feeling of not being able to get his words out stuck with him.
Freespeech refers to the augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) that helps people communicate by pressing buttons that represent words. Users like Della can make sentences by pressing multiple buttons in a sequence. It opens up a whole new world of communication for people who are nonverbal. Now Della can communicate like anybody else, through the iPad.
Archer first put it on TikTok, and the response was so positive that he continued sharing it on GitHub, where experienced programmers helped beef it up. Archer says even if Freespeech only helps one person, his sister, all the time and the put in was worth it.
4. What do we know about Della?
A.She gets along well with Arch. | B.She suffers greatly from blindness. |
C.She quits school because of disability. | D.She shows deep love for computer science. |
5. What does Archer probably think of the available apps online?
A.Interesting. | B.Beneficial. | C.Affordable. | D.Disappointing. |
6. What is Archer’s deeper drive to design Freespeech?
A.His unpleasant early experience. | B.His high expectation of success. |
C.His willingness to help his sister. | D.His decision to develop his own app. |
7. Which of the following best explain “beef it up” underlined in the last paragraph?
A.Make profits. | B.Improve it. | C.Make use of it. | D.Give it likes. |