Jessica Fletcher didn’t want to depend on a device that can run out of power.
Her son Hunter, 11, is nonverbal autistic and lives in New Brunswick, Canada. Everything he says goes through a communication tablet: without it, he has no way to ask for something, say that something hurts, or explain how he feels. One day, at a restaurant, the device ran out of charge. Jessica improvised an alphabet on a paper napkin so Hunter could keep pointing to letters.
From that napkin, she moved on to something that doesn’t run out of power or get forgotten at home: she tattooed a full keyboard on her arm. Now Hunter can point to each letter directly on her skin and form the words he needs, anytime, anywhere. In one of the videos that went viral, he spells out “splash pad” on his mother’s arm to ask to go play in the water. The recording surpassed one and a half million likes, but for Jessica, the most important result isn’t measured in likes: it’s knowing that her son will never be left without a voice.