Snoopi Botten, born with cerebral palsy, has never let anything stop him. His favorite line is, “If you can’t do it one way, you can always do it another.” At the age of 8, when everyone insisted that he was too young to learn to type, he fought for the right to take a typing class that was only for ages 12 and up. By age 9, he was recognized as the youngest person in the world to do art using a typewriter. At age 12, he made front page news for teaching others how to use a computer terminal. By age 16, his first book of poetry was published. He also started writing for a monthly newsletter and still writes today.  At age 18 he didn’t want to graduate because special education taught him less than half of what regular kids were learning. So taking the hard road, he dropped out of school, studied, and passed his G.E.D.

In his adult life, Snoopi is self taught. His priority is music as he programs communication devices to sing. But he has worked at the PACER Center, where he had to be knowledgeable on 300 different pieces of assistive technology. He also was a guest at several collages teaching appropriate ways to evaluate for an AAC system. He currently works at Enable Rehab developing voice gestures for the field of AAC.

If you, or someone you know, is challenged by society or the people in their lives having low expectations for them, Snoopi will help to raise the bar. “If something can’t be done one way, you can ALWAYS do it another,” says Snoopi.