vimeo.com/.../435179763

- (electronic voice) Hi, My name is Tim
and I am from Orange County,

and have cerebral palsy.

I was born with cerebral palsy

and not too sure
how I should answer this question.

Because unlike an accident,

or being born abled
and then becoming disabled,

my cerebral palsy is just normal to me.

Outside of my family,

while I was growing up
I knew that I was different from the rest.

But even now, my family does not point out

that they have a disabled son,
brother, cousin, uncle, or friend.

My CP is invisible to them.

I first noticed that I was disabled

when I went outside and played
with my brothers and their friends.

For example, I always played
with my brothers,

but when we played outside
with the neighborhood kids,

I started noticing most of the adults

started looking at me
moreso than their children.

There is when I knew
that something was wrong with me

and it wasn't because
I couldn't use my hands

or run with my friends.

Getting teased and being bullied
by other kids

was easy for me to deal

because I quickly learned how
to fight back.

But, being not invited
to a classmate's birthday party

and being told that I should go home
by an adult

while my brothers
are playing with their kids

has always impacted my life.

In some ways, I've learned
that discrimination

comes in all shapes and sizes,

and/or by the color of your skin.

I was in high school
when the ADA was signed.

I really didn't see
that much of a difference.

I was being a teenager,
going through crazy adolescence stuff.

ADA started affecting me
when I started college

and traveling a lot more.

For example, when the ADA got signed

and when I started
my first semester in college,

I saw a rapid progression with inclusion.

More and more of my professors

were willing to work with me
and Disabled Student Services

on how to adapt to my disability

by giving me more time for term papers,

making sure that I have
good notetakers and etcetera.

My first semester in college
was very hard.

I think that I had to retake
all of my classes again

because I got no help.

After that, I went to DSS

and they worked with me
at taking the right classes

and the right professors that would
make select accommodations for me.

By the time I needed to take
my core classes for my major,

the department head knew me

and worked with me with my final thesis.

By then, I needed
a lot less services from DSS

because my professors
kept track of how I was doing.

I was one of the first nonverbal student
at the university

to graduated with
a speech communication degree.

At a very young age,
I traveled a lot with my family.

My parents always had
a running checklist going

before we'd travel.

For example, making sure there was
an accessible bathroom, and so on.

Even now, when I travel with my friends,

we always check the restroom situation.

(subtle laughter)

When people think about ADA,

the very first thing that they think
are curb-cuts and sidewalks,

but there are more to it.

Just because someone
is not diagnosed with a disability

doesn't mean that they
don't use the services either.

For example, I know regular people

that turn on subtitles
when they are watching TV.

They don't have hard of hearing,

but they agree
that they get more content

when they are reading and listening
at the same time.

This will not happen if there was no ADA.

Without the American Disabilities Act,

I strongly believe that
we would have gone backwards

with education, employment,
healthcare, and so on.

Communication is very important to me.

Since I have to use an Augmentative
and Alternative Communication Device,

I've always prioritized technology
and communication

together in my daily routine.

I've seen access to be much better
as I've gotten older.

Such as when I'm at an airport

and need to use a TTY machine
to make a phone call,

I can always find one
that is easily accessible.

There is more awareness
for being nonverbal now.

As the population gets more
used to the disabled community,

people are more aware
that there are other forms

of communication such as ASL,
AEC and so on.

One of the main barriers that I always see

is economic inequality

between people with disability
and able-bodied.

Our society tends to assume
that if you are disabled,

you are invalid in the workforce.

This is not true.

There are many people with disabilities
that are highly educated

and more than willing
to earn a fair wage of living.

Also, our government dings people

who are getting SSI
or other types of services.

For example, I've worked
for an educational publisher

for 16 years and due to the pandemic,

I needed to take a leave of absence
for however long.

Because of my disability,
I can only work part-time.

I also get SSDI based off my work credits

that I accumulated over the years.

When I was working,

I needed to make sure
not to exceed too much

or else I would lose my benefits.

How is this fair?

There should be a baseline living wage

from the government under the ADA act

so that people with disabilities
are encouraged to work

and more importantly,

employers are willing to hire more
from our community.

Right now because of COVID-19,

more and more people with disabilities

are getting sick
because of large institutions.

The White House Coronavirus task force
hasn't really mentioned anything

on how to be safe within our community.

Seems like that
our community is being left behind.

There is no awareness at all,

or any outreach from the White House.

It feels like that no one from the top

has any understanding of our community.

In California, we are required to wear
some kind of facial covering

when we are in public.

Many people in our community
are not able to wear any kind of mask.

One idea would be to form a committee
with all of the national organizations

such as United Cerebral Palsy,
Muscular Dystrophy Association,

Autism Society, and many others

to form one unit on the main purpose

of protecting the most vulnerable
from the virus.

More importantly, we can come up
with some kind of procedures,

guidelines, and distributing
of information nationally and locally.

Since these organizations have
local offices throughout the country,

it wouldn't be too difficult to outreach

and create a database on how we are doing,

and for those areas who are seeing
a spike of infections

in group homes and such,

we can do more outreach
and offer more support.