- 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 speech communication degree.
At a very young age I traveled a lot
with my family. My parents always had
a running checklist going be for 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 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 Disability 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 Augmentative
and Alternative Communication Device
i've always prioritized technology and
communication together in
my daily routine.