For over 30 years, Greg worked as a carpenter on Salt Spring Island. Three years ago, he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease. He joined our Digital Jumpstart program to be able to do more research on the computer and access opportunities that are available digitally, now that he isn’t able to work.

“[My goals were] just to learn how to use a computer, quite frankly,” he explains.

Greg began working with Jody, an assistive technology trainer, and began learning how to use Dragon Naturally Speaking, a program that allows him to use the computer by dictating commands with his voice rather than a mouse and keyboard.

“[Jody] was brilliant. She was very patient, she answered questions that were seemingly off-topic, but popped up for me because it’s like this whole world of how do I use Gmail, what is Drive, how do I organize my files. Because I was shifting from a paper system that I had been using for decades trying to go into a digital system,” he says. “With the program of Dragon, she was very thorough and kept me challenged.”

Through Digital Jumpstart, Greg received a laptop, a wireless keyboard, a wireless headset, as well as Microsoft Office and Dragon software.

He credits Jody with helping him take it one step at a time when he was feeling overwhelmed learning the programs.

Greg says that the Digital Jumpstart program gave him a sense of confidence and hopefulness.

“I may have to change my frame of reference, maybe I can’t go kayaking anymore, or work as a carpenter, but there are other things I can do,” he shares. “It was just really inspiring to think I can do stuff, maybe just different than it was before.

“And with perseverance, I think I can do anything now.”

With his new computer skills, Greg is interested in helping others who have been diagnosed with Parkinson’s.

“I wonder if I can use the skills I’ve learned through Digital Jumpstart and then hopefully get some more skills to coach people with Parkinson’s that are in my same situation,” he shares. “There’s this huge gap I see between the diagnosis and how you live your life now, is there a way I can help other people in my situation overcome the hurdle?”

Greg looks forward to continuing to work with Neil Squire to refine his computer skills.

“In this time of doom and gloom with what’s going on in the world, it was just a ray of bright hope.”