KARNS CITY — Just a few years ago, Shawn Crawford was confined to a wheelchair, unable to walk or speak.

Tonight, he will graduate in the top 10 percent of his class at Karns City High School.

"I feel excited about it, but (high school) went too fast," said Crawford, a bright 17-year-old with a happy grin.

Crawford has multiple disabilities that limit his sight, hearing and motor abilities. Thanks to his determination and accommodations by the Karns City School District, Crawford will graduate with a 4.0 grade-point average — number 11 in his class of 113 students.

Crawford has Leber's hereditary optic atrophy, a degenerative condition that causes vision loss. His disorder also involves hearing and motor function.

He began to lose some central vision in first grade and experience hearing difficulties in third grade.

He joined the hearing impaired class at Center Avenue School in the fall of 2001, but came down with a viral infection the following spring. He fell into a coma for nearly two months and was left unable to walk or speak.

At that time, he was told he also might have a mitochondrial disorder that exacerbated the hearing, vision and motor difficulties, said Becky Plymale, a teacher for the hearing impaired at the Midwestern Intermediate Unit IV in Grove City.

"I wasn't walking or talking, but I was determined to get out of the wheelchair," Crawford said.

Crawford also was diagnosed with auditory dyssynchrony, which delays the auditory signal before reaching his brain, Plymale said.

After extensive physical and occupational therapy at the Clarence Brown Education Center throughout much of 2002, Crawford was speaking by November and walking by December.

He was then able to return to the Center Avenue School and remained there before entering Karns City Junior-Senior High School in seventh grade.

Teaching assistant Theresa McCaslin worked at Clarence Brown when Crawford attended and said he impressed her even then.

"They would tell him to go up and down the front steps two times to work on his coordination, and he would do it three times," she recalled. "He always goes a step further."

In seventh grade, Crawford was formally paired with McCaslin, who has been by his side ever since.

At first, Crawford had three classes individually taught by vision or hearing teachers from the IU.

A breakthrough came between eighth and ninth grades, when Crawford received a cochlear implant. The surgically implanted electronic device provides a sense of sound to the profoundly deaf or severely hard of hearing.

"Shawn's cochlear implant in 2006 helped him return to regular classes while using an FM assistive listening device," Plymale said. "Before the cochlear, all communication to Shawn had to be written or typed."

Teachers clipped the small FM microphone to their collars during class, transmitting sound directly to his cochlear implant, she added.

Crawford then followed a regular class schedule at Karns City except for English, which was taught by Plymale.

Hearing-impaired people often have trouble understanding idioms, sarcasm and other abnormal language, so it must be explicitly taught, she explained.

"He's a joy," said Plymale, who has worked with Crawford since 2001. "I've never had a student who enjoys learning so much."

Crawford consistently moved forward, Plymale said, adding he received high honors throughout high school and was a member of the National Honor Society.

Even though Crawford loves school, the excitement in the building was palpable last Friday, the last day of class for Karns City's seniors.

As Crawford sat in a classroom waiting for his bus, he and McCaslin reminisced about their journey.

The Karns City School District went "above and beyond" to provide Crawford with what he needed, including closed captioned television and the FM microphone system, McCaslin said.

The school also provided Crawford with a laptop in ninth grade, which was a turning point in his education.

He began toting the laptop to class and home so he could use it for assignments.

McCaslin used to write notes and schoolwork for Crawford by hand, but the laptop enabled him to be more independent.

"I felt like I could do much better," Crawford said. "It took away a lot of the stress because I could get work done much faster on the laptop."

The laptop features ZoomText, a software program that magnifies the screen and provides other services for the visually impaired.

The program makes it easier for Crawford to read on-screen text, type assignments and proofread his work.

"He can do anything anybody can do; it just takes a little longer," McCaslin said.

McCaslin made other adjustments for Crawford, such as using a copy machine to enlarge textbook pages, worksheets and other class materials onto 11-by-17 sheets of paper.

"The teachers have been really good about getting things to me at least a day in advance," said McCaslin, who used the time to make sure Crawford's education paralleled the other students' as closely as possible.

McCaslin was honored Nov. 18 for her work with Crawford with the IU's 2009 Spirit Award.

The award recognizes a support staff member who exemplifies excellence on the job and caring involvement.

Crawford also was recognized last year through the Challenge Program, which honored him and about a dozen classmates for outstanding achievement in class attendance, community service, grade-point average and overall improvement.

Crawford took home the Most Improved award for an essay on his progress in giving class presentations.

Looking back on all Crawford has accomplished is emotional for McCaslin.

"I feel like my own child is graduating," said McCaslin, who will escort Crawford onstage during tonight's graduation ceremony.

As an employee of the IU, she can be sent on assignment anywhere in Butler County. Her next assignment is unknown, but McCaslin is not worried.

"It is going to be difficult because (Shawn) has been a big part of my life for a long time," said McCaslin, who has worked as an aide for more than 10 years. "But I love being in the classroom with kids."

Crawford will spend the summer at home in Sugarcreek Township, Armstrong County, with his parents John and Susan and his brother Brandon.

This fall, he will attend classes at Butler County Community College and major in computer programming.

For the first time in his academic career, Crawford will be completely independent in the classroom.

"I shadowed some programmers a few months ago," he said confidently. "I feel I can do it."