My oldest friend, Martha McCann Rose, is the Head of the Department of Education at Salve Regina University in Newport, Rhode Island. She invited me to come and speak to some of her students this week and I leaped at the chance. Salve Regina is one of the most beautiful colleges in the country, with a campus set right on the ocean and whose buildings were once the stately homes of Newport. This is the view from the admin building lawns – it’s difficult to understand how the students get any work done with such vistas to gaze off into.

But Martha says they are among the most serious students she has ever taught. The group of 70 I addressed were certainly attentive. They listened carefully and asked good questions. At the end of the program, Martha asked if there were anything they could do to help us in our work. “You know we have this great software called Boardmaker,” she said. “we could help make communication materials for your kids if you want.”

Amazing. Just that morning I had received an email from Anne Bruce, our Scottish speech therapist who is volunteering with us at the moment. Here’s what she said:

Now Jo, I’m sure you must be fed up to the back teeth with people from the Foundation e-mailing you with doom-ridden letters. But I have a specific question for you, as the speech and language therapy department is in crisis mode. You remember that CD (Boardmaker) which I brought with me, which has 10,000,000 symbols on it? It’s broken in two. Over-used, over-heated; who knows? It just sat there in two pieces in my computer. The implications are dire – no timetable symbols, no symbol-based games, no symbols books for kids to communicate, I could go on and on. Just when I’ve got all the staff keen, informed, and ready to take it on. I can’t even access the work I’ve done already, and there’s hours of it on my computer. Trouble is it’s an encrypted CD, so no copies can be made, nor is it supposed to be used by anyone other than the registered user, who’s a friend of mine in the UK.

I’ve e-mailed my friend in the UK who owns it, and we’ll see what she says, but I don’t hold out any great hope. Will we have to take to the felt-tip pens?

So here is my specific question. Is there any way that LRF could afford to buy, and therefore be registered with, a copy of the new version to use here? I’ve checked on the net, and, hold your breath, it costs $649. It’s such an important piece of equipment for communication for the kids; anyone in special ed would say the same. I would raise money for it myself when I get back (and will) but really we need it now. And maybe your wheedling skills may produce a reduction in price from the suppliers (they’re in California).

I shared Anne’s plight with the assembled. Immediately, the students began to whisper amongst themselves. By the time my program was over, they had formed a group. Then one of them stood up and announced that they would raise the money we needed to buy the software. As I left, they were planning a bake sale and a pledge campaign. These are the special educators of tomorrow. It makes me feel very good about the children who will be placed in their loving hands!