Burgon Jensen is a 31-year-old teacher, artist, and motivational speaker from Draper, Utah. She lives with her guide dog, a standard poodle named Lucia. Burgon was born with retinitis pigmentosa, a progressive disorder that led to her eventual blindness. She is deaf as well.
When Burgon was attending the Helen Keller National Center in New York, she needed a new phone and was referred to iCanConnect, also known as The National Deaf-Blind Equipment Distribution Program. iCanConnect is a national program with local contacts that provides free distance communication equipment and training to qualified individuals who have significant combined hearing and vision loss.
The phone Burgon had been using was difficult for her to operate. It had a small keyboard so she would use the voiceover function, which often led to miscommunication as a result of her vision and hearing loss. It was not easy to check email and challenging overall for Burgon to use to communicate.
After Burgon applied to iCanConnect and was accepted into the program, an iCanConnect representative met with her to review her distance communications needs and goals.Through the program, she received an iPhone, a Focus 14 portable braille display, and a MacBook Pro. She received training on how to use her new equipment and says it has made a huge difference in how she can communicate.
“iCanConnect has been life-changing,” says Burgon. “It’s completely opened my entire world. I didn’t know I could get more than a phone through the program! I use my equipment to help me communicate. I email and text with my family and friends; I participate in social media; and I use video chat to teach remote ASL lessons twice a week.”
Burgon opened an online Etsy shop a few years ago and credits iCanConnect with helping her to be able to run her small business. “I can communicate with all of my customers, which is really important to me,” she says. “iCanConnect is a great program. It accommodates a lot of different types of people by providing a wide-range of equipment to meet every participant’s distance communication needs.”
In her spare time, Burgon is a motivational speaker for schools, businesses, church functions, and more. She uses her equipment to capture her speeches and then uses her braille display to help her deliver them remotely. “I’m really lucky,” she says. “The iCanConnect representatives are super accommodating and have provided me with the equipment that helps me stay connected with the world.”
