Dylan Dzikowski, left, of Jefferson Township, and his friend Jacob Hernishin of Baldwin, Allegheny County.Both are seniors at The Children's Institute in Pittsburgh and received Volunteer of the Year awards from the Jewish Aging Association for their work greeting and interacting with senior citizens at the Charles Morris Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh.

SAXONBURG — Don’t tell Dylan Dzikowski that he can’t achieve a goal or pursue a vocation just because his muscles refuse to cooperate with his brain.

“I think to myself, I can do that,” Dylan said with the help of the augmentative communication device attached to his adaptive wheelchair.

That can-do attitude earned Dylan, 21, who will graduate this school year from The Children’s Institute of Pittsburgh, a Volunteer of the Year Award from the Jewish Association on Aging.

Dylan, who has cerebral palsy, has spent the last two years volunteering each Friday at the Charles Morris Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood.

There, he and other students from the Institute greeted visitors and new patients and interacted with them using the care services there.

Dylan’s mom, Christen Turley, said he once used an iPad to communicate, but it was a long and laborious chore to stop the scanning cursor each time it came to a letter Dylan wanted to use to spell a word.

About a year ago, he got the Accent 1000, which recognizes the individual letter Dylan is choosing when his eye rests on it. After he chooses just a few letters, the device suggests words he might be spelling, and he can choose a word with his eyes.

When a sentence is formed, Dylan clicks a button just by looking at it and the sentence is read aloud by the device.

“Now that he has the Accent 1000, he’s a talker,” Turley said.

Read more about Dylan and his work at the Charles Morris Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Sunday’s Butler Eagle or subscribe to butlereagle.com.