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

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and have cerebral palsy.

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I was born with cerebral palsy

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and not too sure
how I should answer this question.

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Because unlike an accident,

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or being born abled
and then becoming disabled,

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my cerebral palsy is just normal to me.

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Outside of my family,

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

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But even now, my family does not point out

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

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My CP is invisible to them.

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I first noticed that I was disabled

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

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For example, I always played
with my brothers,

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but when we played outside
with the neighborhood kids,

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I started noticing most of the adults

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started looking at me
moreso than their children.

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There is when I knew
that something was wrong with me

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

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or run with my friends.

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Getting teased and being bullied
by other kids

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was easy for me to deal

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because I quickly learned how
to fight back.

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

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and being told that I should go home
by an adult

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while my brothers
are playing with their kids

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has always impacted my life.

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In some ways, I've learned
that discrimination

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comes in all shapes and sizes,

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and/or by the color of your skin.

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I was in high school
when the ADA was signed.

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

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

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ADA started affecting me
when I started college

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and traveling a lot more.

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For example, when the ADA got signed

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and when I started
my first semester in college,

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I saw a rapid progression with inclusion.

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More and more of my professors

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were willing to work with me
and Disabled Student Services

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on how to adapt to my disability

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by giving me more time for term papers,

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making sure that I have
good notetakers and etcetera.

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My first semester in college
was very hard.

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

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because I got no help.

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After that, I went to DSS

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and they worked with me
at taking the right classes

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

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

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the department head knew me

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and worked with me with my final thesis.

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By then, I needed
a lot less services from DSS

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because my professors
kept track of how I was doing.

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I was one of the first nonverbal student
at the university

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to graduated with
a speech communication degree.

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

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My parents always had
a running checklist going

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before we'd travel.

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

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Even now, when I travel with my friends,

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we always check the restroom situation.

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(subtle laughter)

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When people think about ADA,

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

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but there are more to it.

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Just because someone
is not diagnosed with a disability

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

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For example, I know regular people

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that turn on subtitles 
when they are watching TV.

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They don't have hard of hearing,

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but they agree
that they get more content

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when they are reading and listening
at the same time.

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This will not happen if there was no ADA.

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Without the American Disabilities Act,

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I strongly believe that
we would have gone backwards

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with education, employment,
healthcare, and so on.

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Communication is very important to me.

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

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I've always prioritized technology
and communication

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together in my daily routine.

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

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Such as when I'm at an airport

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

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I can always find one
that is easily accessible.

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There is more awareness
for being nonverbal now.

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As the population gets more
used to the disabled community,

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people are more aware
that there are other forms

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of communication such as ASL,
AEC and so on.

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One of the main barriers that I always see

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is economic inequality

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between people with disability
and able-bodied.

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Our society tends to assume
that if you are disabled,

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you are invalid in the workforce.

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This is not true.

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There are many people with disabilities
that are highly educated

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

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Also, our government dings people

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who are getting SSI
or other types of services.

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For example, I've worked
for an educational publisher

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for 16 years and due to the pandemic,

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

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

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I also get SSDI based off my work credits

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that I accumulated over the years.

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When I was working,

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I needed to make sure
not to exceed too much

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or else I would lose my benefits.

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How is this fair?

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There should be a baseline living wage

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from the government under the ADA act

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so that people with disabilities
are encouraged to work

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and more importantly,

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employers are willing to hire more
from our community.

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Right now because of COVID-19,

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more and more people with disabilities

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are getting sick
because of large institutions.

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

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on how to be safe within our community.

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Seems like that
our community is being left behind.

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There is no awareness at all,

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or any outreach from the White House.

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It feels like that no one from the top

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has any understanding of our community.

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

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when we are in public.

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

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

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such as United Cerebral Palsy,
Muscular Dystrophy Association,

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Autism Society, and many others

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to form one unit on the main purpose

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of protecting the most vulnerable
from the virus.

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

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guidelines, and distributing
of information nationally and locally.

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Since these organizations have 
local offices throughout the country,

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it wouldn't be too difficult to outreach

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and create a database on how we are doing,

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and for those areas who are seeing
a spike of infections

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in group homes and such,

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we can do more outreach
and offer more support.