Special education para educator Colleen Songer sits and waits patiently, holding the tray up on senior Greg Portilla’s wheelchair. In the quiet room, all you can hear is clicking every few seconds as Portilla scrolls through the pre-set options on his iPad to give a response to a question.

“I was excited to get my new chair, it had been a long time since I had got my last chair so it made my back hurt when I stayed in it too long,” his communication device reads for him.

He presses his head and knee scanner that are set up on his wheelchair in a certain pattern in order to choose different options on the communication device. It is a lengthy process for him to answer just one question. He wasn’t the only one who had a little to learn when the new device arrived.

“I was like ‘oh great,’ another thing to learn, but it is a lot easier to do than the other [wheelchair] because it has two settings; a slower one and a faster one,” Songer said.

Portilla has learned an uncommon skill that is necessary for him to be able to get around; he has learned to drive a power chair with his head. In order to go forward, left or right, he leans his head back, left or right on the panels that are on his chair by his head. He got his first power-chair in middle school, but he got his newest one this past September.

“I was proud of him to see that he had that ability,” essential skills teacher Juli Smith said. “He was just learning how, but I would say [I felt] proud that he would take that chance because it was hard. It took a lot of time to learn how to do that, and a lot of crashes.”

Smith said that the first time she saw him in his wheelchair, he was joking with her and he tried to run over her. He does enjoy pranking people and Songer said that he makes work more enjoyable. Portilla is really good at steering his chair, and often goes up to people really fast and stops right before them to scare them.

“He is a sweet and caring young man, he is always ready to help others as well as ready to prank others,” Songer said. “I think he is a lot of fun to be around.”

Not only has Portilla enjoyed his power chair, which has made him more independent, but so have other para-educators. He has been able to get around easier and do more things on his own. It has opened more opportunities for him and he has used it to help others.

“He was in his power chair, he drove over to the Early Childhood Center over at Hackmann, and then we set him up and he read stories to the kids over there using his communication device,” Smith said. “I think that was a really good interaction because the students over there were very young and were very interested in his communication device, and his wheelchair. They sat there and listened and afterwards he let them come up and see everything.”

While the power chair has made him more independent, it stopped functioning properly for a while. A charging module in the controller that flashes during use was faulty. Portilla was left to using his manual push wheelchair.

“The problem with technology is that I can’t always depend on it,” Portilla’s communication device spoke for him. “You probably noticed I’m not in my new power chair, well that’s because it broke after one month and no one has come out to fix it yet. The error code says it’s a faulting module. I’m really out of the creek when my bluetooth doesn’t work and I can’t use my communication device.”

However, the chair was fixed shortly after, and Portilla is now back in his it.