Jonathan Bryan, who has died aged 19, following a short illness, was a poet, author and campaigner for the education of profoundly disabled children.
Born with cerebral palsy, which severely restricted control of his limbs and the facial muscles necessary for speech, Jonathan confounded the limited expectations that so often accompanied the label of profound and multiple learning difficulties (PMLD). With the support of his family – his parents, Christopher Bryan, an Anglican vicar, and Chantal (nee Suffield Jones), and two younger sisters – as well as carers, communication partners and specialists, he learned to read, and then to write, using a spelling board and the movement of his eyes. By the age of nine he had, as he said, “found his voice” and thereafter was able to join mainstream education, finishing in the sixth-form at Westonbirt school, not far from the family’s home in Wiltshire.
