- Hi, My name is Tim and I am from
Orange County. I have cerebral palsy.
I was born with cerebral palsy and not too
sure how to 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 C.P is invisible to them.
I first noticed that I was disabled
when I went outside and played with
my bothers 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 then their children.
There is when I knew there was something
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 classmates birthday party or 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 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 effecting
me when I started collage and
traveling a lot more.
for example, 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
disable 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 because
I got no help. After that,
I went to the DSS and they worked
with me at taking the right classes
and the right professors 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 who graduated with
a communication degree