- 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.