In the lively corridors of Wanganui Girls College, year nine student Shenaragh Nemani is just part of the school landscape.
Shenaragh has cerebral palsy and has never talked to her school mates or her family.
She is only able to signal yes and no using flicks of her eyes.
After 14 years without a voice a state of the art communicator, the my tobii arrived in Shenaragh's world, a Swedish made computer which uses eye tracking technology.
Infra red sensors calibrate with Shenaragh's eyes, so she can focus on words and letters and graphics and tell a visiting reporter what she likes doing at school.
Shanaragh has a certain kudos around the school now, the my tobii has revealed an appealing teenager.
“Now she has a voice, and now everything comes out through this computer,” says her mother Cheryl Nemani.
Everything, including her intellect.
In the past Shanaragh's teachers have not had an accurate idea of her mental ability.
For years she has sat silently in class taking everything in - maths, written language and the world around her.
She also knows how to use technology to get her way.
“She likes to play us against each other,” says her father Sam Nemani.
“She’ll ask Cheryl a question, and if Cheryl said no, she’d wait until I come into the room and she’ll ask me a question on the computer, I’d say yes and Cheryl would come in and say ‘I just finished saying no to her’, so yeah, just little things like that.”
“Typical teenager,” says Cheryl.
Now around school, Shenaragh's wit is legendary.
“The teachers come through and talk to her and she talks back,” says head of the learning unit Bev Ward.
But the $40,000 communicator has only been on loan to Shenaragh - for a few weeks last year, in April this year, and a week now in June.
She is on a long waiting list subject to Ministry of Health funding that has recently been curbed.
Last time the my tobii had to go back, Cheryl says Shenaragh turned on the screen and spoke, “I love you my tobii.”
“The teachers got teary-eyed as soon as she spoke it. They all felt the same sadness as Shenaragh,” she says.
On Friday, Shenaragh will lose the my tobii indefinitely, and her voice.
“That’s it until we can get one funded,” says Cheryl.
As Shenaragh rolls off on her lunch break at school, you cannot help but think that the revelations of the my tobii, have not so much transformed Shenaragh – but everyone around her.