A non-verbal teenager who uses his eyes to write is sharing his Christian faith through poetry, seven years on from the publication of his memoir.
Jonathan Bryan, 19, has cerebral palsy, and uses an alphabet board to communicate. His book Eye Can Write came out in 2018 – when he was only 12 years old – and details the silence, loneliness and pain of not being able to speak, and the experience of becoming literate and being able to communicate with his own words.
Now, through his online blog “Eye Can Talk”, Bryan shares the importance of his faith: “Central to my life is faith in Jesus and knowing that this life is not the end. Spending time with others as we journey through the Christian life together is one of the highlights of my week.”
A Creative Writing student at Bath Spa University, he also shares glimpses into his Christian faith through poems, one of which is entitled The Journey: “We lift our eyes up To the Judean mountains, Our feet will not slip in our ascent, Our sights fixed ahead to completion, Persevering until the fog is lifted, And we meet the face of God.”
Bryan was born by emergency C-section following a car accident. After being transferred from the local hospital’s special care baby unit to the regional children’s neonatal intensive care unit, Bryan was given an MRI scan of his brain. It was described by one of the consultants as the worst brain scan seen by the technician.
Bryan’s mother taught him to read and write using a spelling alphabet board. On his blog, Bryan writes: “A year and a half after I was first taken out of my special school to be taught, I started to use my eyes to spell out everything I wanted to say and write on an alphabet board known as an E-Tran frame. My eyes became my voice.”
Bryan is a decade into campaigning for the prevention of those with complex needs, and those who are non-verbal, from being overlooked.
