ALKHOBAR, 28 August 2007 — One of the best things about information technology is that it doesn’t differentiate between any ethnicity, gender or physical makeup. That can be wonderful for people who have physical or mental differences that make them stand out in a crowd. While we’re all different from one another, when a person in some way goes beyond what society considers “normal,” often it can be tough to have a happy real life.

In 2001, at the age of 16, Logan Olson of Spokane, Washington, USA, had a heart attack and received CPR for about 20 minutes. She was in a coma for three weeks, and when she woke up, she found that her life had changed completely.

“She forgot how to walk, talk, eat, drink — everything,” explained Laurie Olson, Logan Olson’s mother. “It took about a year for Logan to be able to speak, stand, tie her shoes, read, type. Everything was really difficult for her. She had a whole lot going on in her head, but it was difficult to get it out.”

After coming home from rehabilitation, Laurie Olson began looking online for magazines that catered to girls with disabilities.

“We wanted hope, tips, advice, dreams, for the ‘now what’ questions that Logan had,” said Laurie.

To their surprise, no such magazine existed at the time. So Logan Olson did what she didn’t before think possible — she started a magazine herself. For the past four years, the Olsons have been hard at work developing Logan Magazine, and the third edition is coming out this fall.

Logan is an essential member of the team that produces the magazine. Due to physical limitations, instead of using a keyboard to type in text, Logan uses voice recognition software that works with Windows Vista. Laurie said that the speech recognition software works just fine, even though Logan has a speech impediment. Logan uses the voice recognition software to not only enter text into her PC, but also to answer e-mails.

The Olson’s hope that their magazine will reach girls with disabilities all over the world. To know more about Logan and Logan Magazine click to www.loganmagazine.com.