Local Women Helps Handicapped
Lift the Veil of Silence
By Barbara Ernst

Arlene Disbrow has just founded Crucial Communications, which helps those who have lost their capacity to speak and write by offering a booklet with color-coded phrases at which they can point. (Herald / Tim Calabro)

When you can’t speak, and you can’t write, how on earth can you communicate? How can you break through that wall of loneliness?

East Randolph’s Arlene Disbrow, in trying to help her father, discovered an effective, low-tech solution to this problem. Now she hopes to make it available to others through her new business, Crucial Communications.

Crucial Communications is the culmination of over three years of work. Disbrow has developed two booklets, each 6 by 9 inches with 22 pages, one for nursing home patients and one for home health care recipients. She has begun selling them online.

The user-friendly booklets, "Point to Communicate," provide a low-tech communication system that uses pictures, words, and phrases that allows speech and writing-impaired individuals to express themselves.

Crucial Communications helps clients express both physical ("I need a blanket" or "I’m in pain") and emotional ("I feel homesick") needs. Disbrow describes the third component, mental needs, as a broad range of activities which "engage the mind, keep one thinking and active, such as "Bible" and "I need the remote." Using the "Point to Communicate" booklet, the client simply points to a picture to convey a need.

An alphabet and set of numbers in the front of the booklet enables one to spell things out and give information such as phone numbers.

The patent is pending, a legal phrase that does not do justice to the complexity and amount of time, thought, energy, and planning which goes into earning this designation.

Disbrow describes her venture as "scary" at first. Setting up an Internet business, learning about different software and varied programs were new to her. She adds, "finding funding sources was a big challenge. It was difficult for financial backers to see the ‘big picture’." Community Capital of Vermont, of Barre, understood her venture and funded her project.

Disability Increasing

Disbrow says that aphasia, the inability to speak or communicate the written word, is increasing. According to Cure Research, Inc., 1,000,000 people suffered from aphasia in the past year, and the number grows; they include one-third of all stroke victims, as well as those effected by Parkinson’s and Lyme diseases, multiple sclerosis, ALS, old age, or who have been injured accidentally.

Selling her booklets online, Disbrow said, opens the business to great numbers and diverse clientele. Disbrow was happily surprised when, early in the process, she received a large order from a prominent New York City medical center. The immediate positive response gave her a boost at a crucial time.

Puritan Press, Inc. of Hollis, N.H. is printing 1000 of each of the two booklets. Cost of the booklet is $49.95, compared to the minimum of $130 for other programs. Booklets will be ready to ship July 23.

Disbrow’s first client, and her inspiration, was her father, who had both Parkinson’s and Lyme diseases. He lost his voice and could not communicate with either speech or writing. Disbrow created a big book filled with pictures symbolizing a variety of needs, so that her father could communicate with his wife, family, and medical care providers.

After her father’s death, Disbrow realized that many "everyday folks" who had suffered a setback were without a voice.

Disbrow had been working with special needs individuals in health care settings and schools for over 15 years. When her latest program ended, she found herself wondering what to do next. She hoped to take her skills and help many people rather than one person at a time.

When on the internet researching careers, Disbrow realized that special needs individuals had a variety of technologies available to them, but there was nothing reasonably priced and available for the average person who is disabled with loss of voice and writing.

What began as an idea focused on meeting her father’s specific needs evolved through a maze of intricate steps. She researched existing programs, patents, copyright images, and networked with patent attorneys, business consultants, graphic artists, printers and designers.

Disbrow called on her many years’ experience in private nursing and home health, and work with special needs students as she designed her program. Her 15-plus years as the Pancake Lady, creating and marketing her unique pancake blend, gave her comfort in the business world.

Disbrow credits family personality traits which allowed her to persevere in her search for a successful program.

"It’s in the genes," reflected Disbrow. "My great-grandmother lost her husband when she was 30 years old, and kept her family together by working as a seamstress. My grandmother came to the mainland from Puerto Rico during the Depression, spoke no English, and again, supported herself and family as a seamstress. My mother was the first woman to become a financial analyst in the Federal Reserve Bank."

Goals for Disbrow include marketing on-line, radio, and TV; putting booklets into different languages, including Braille; creating a booklet for children; designing booklets for different environments; and marketing through other institutions with which aphasiacs affiliate.

Disbrow’s dream, inspired by her father, and fostered by her female relatives, has become a reality. For more information go to www.crucial-communications. com.