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Alumni Entrepreneurs
Caroline Musselwhite
Growing up, Caroline Musselwhite had a first-hand look at what life was like with a disability.
“My father was blinded during World War II, but the funny part is that I didn’t really think of him as someone with a disability,” Musselwhite said. “He was a highly functional and giving person and was the head of a law firm. I remember people used to ask my mom things like what he wanted from a menu, and she would always say, ‘Why don’t you ask him?’”
Although Musselwhite’s experience with people with disabilities started at home, her interest in working with them didn’t start until high school when she tutored kids with special needs.
“I loved tutoring kids with disabilities,” Musselwhite said. “In college, I worked at the Murdock Center in North Carolina. I came back a second year and they just couldn’t believe it, so they placed me with students who had extremely significant disabilities.”
Musselwhite’s college career began at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she obtained both her bachelor’s degree in English and her master’s degree in speech-language pathology. Her work at the Murdock Center during this time inspired her to think outside of the box and seek innovative ways to help individuals with multiple disabilities.
“My main student at the center always insisted on involving a friend of hers who, in my opinion, was unaware of her environment,” Musselwhite said. “It was a struggle, as my student always insisted I bring her friend along on activities. It wasn’t easy getting two wheelchairs down the hall.”
Over time, Musselwhite began to realize that this other student was more aware than most believed. It was her reaction to a well-known soap opera that enlightened Musselwhite to the student’s abilities.
“I arrived at work one day and the student was crying,” Musselwhite said. “I thought she must have been sick, but my other student advised that she was upset because Jorge on ‘Days of our Lives’ had died. I wish I could tell you that I figured out a communication system and she talked, but I didn’t. I was only 19 and she was trapped in her body. But it was then that I started to understand and develop a new respect for individuals with disabilities.”
While still in college, Musselwhite co-authored a 30-page paper on communication for people who do not speak. Her paper drew a large amount of attention and she soon began publishing additional resources for individuals with significant disabilities and for those working with these individuals.
In 1975, Musselwhite attended the American Speech and Hearing Association conference, where she gave two presentations just ten months out of graduate school. Her work caught the attention of Dr. Norman Lass, then chair of the Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology (now the Department of Communication Science and Disorders), who soon hired her as a clinical supervisor at WVU. According to Musselwhite, this was this position that motivated her to pursue her doctoral degree.
“It was a crazy job for someone who is a beginner, but it was one of the jobs I loved most in my life,” Musselwhite said.
Musselwhite graduated with her EdD in education in 1982, and she credits her minor in special education to many of her successes.
“My minor in special education allowed me to design my own independent study courses focused on serving the needs of individuals with significant disabilities,” Musselwhite said. “This has always been the area I was most interested in. Not being able to figure out successful communication systems for some of the students I’ve worked with has always really haunted me and made me want to learn more so that I could make that happen.”
In the late 1970’s, Musselwhite and a colleague decided to pull together information on existing augmentative and alternative communication for students who were not able to speak. According to Musselwhite, more than 300 requests were made for the manuscript from around the world. This assured Musselwhite and her colleague that they were not the only people who felt the need for more information about alternative communication for students with disabilities.
After years of publishing materials about communication solutions, Musselwhite and her colleague launched AAC Intervention in 1999. Through the company, Musselwhite continues to offer free or inexpensive materials for individuals who work with and teach students with significant disabilities.
“One of the most rewarding parts of my job is when a teacher, therapist or parent has that ‘aha’ moment that signifies a paradigm shift that will change how they support their students or their own children,” Musselwhite said. “As Erin Sheldon describes it, ‘Communication is when one person tells another something we did not know they were thinking.’ So, when my students who use AAC tell me something I could not have predicted, I feel absolutely and totally rewarded.”