Christopher Graham loves music, and he loves guitars. Among his most prized possessions are two guitar picks used by “The Boss”, Bruce Springsteen, during an Adelaide concert.

Christopher Graham loves music, and he loves guitars. Among his most prized possessions are two guitar picks used by “The Boss”, Bruce Springsteen, during an Adelaide concert.

21-year-old Christopher lives with cerebral palsy quadriplegia, and the past few years have been tough for him with several health scares. However, he always has a smile on his face!

Christopher is a participant in the Day Options program at the scosa hub at Willaston, and also receives therapy services from the team at Novita’s Elizabeth hub.

In recent years he has started using eye-gaze technology to support his communication, and his amazing progress with this equipment earned him the President’s Achievement Award at the recent 2020 Novita Achievement Awards presentation.

The Award is presented annually to a Novita or scosa client of any age who lives with physical or intellectual disability and has made outstanding progress in their rehabilitation.

He was nominated for the award by Novita speech pathologist Kayleigh Bedford, who has worked closely with Christopher on his communication skills.

“The eye-gaze equipment has a camera that tracks Christopher’s eyes, allowing him to dwell over symbols for communication, or to do other things like selecting music to play or You Tube videos to watch,” says Kayleigh.

“We initially requested a 12-week eye-gaze trial for Christopher, but he took to it straight away and was able to tell us that he wasn’t feeling well, which we could deal with immediately, and he was super happy with that, so we went straight to a prescription.

“I nominated Christopher for the Award because he’s made huge leaps and bounds with the eye-gaze system. He picked it up like an absolute champion. I’m really proud of Christopher and the achievements he’s made with his eye-gaze.”