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- Hi, My name is Tim and I am from

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Orange County. I have cerebral palsy.

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I was born with cerebral palsy and not too

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sure how to answer this question.

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Because unlike an accident or being

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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, while I

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was growing up, I knew that I was

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different from the rest.

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but even now my family does not

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point out that they have a

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disabled son, brother, cousin, uncle

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or friend. my C.P 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

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my bothers and their friends.

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For example, I always played with my

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brothers but when we played outside

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with the neighborhood kids, I started

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noticing most of the adults started

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looking at me moreso then their children.

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There is when I knew there was something

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wrong with me and it wasn't because

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I couldn't use my hands or run with

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my friends. Getting teased and being

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bullied by other kids was easy for me

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to deal because I quickly learned how

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to fight back. But, being not invited

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to a classmates birthday party or being

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told that I should go home by an adult

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while my brothers are playing with their

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kids has always impacted my life.

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in some ways, I've learned that

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discrimination comes in all shapes

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and sizes and/or the color of your

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skin. I was in high school when the ADA

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was signed. I really didn't see that

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much of a difference. I was being

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a teenager going through crazy

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adolescence stuff. ADA started effecting

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me when I started collage and

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traveling a lot more.

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for example, the ADA got signed

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and when I started my first

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semester in college, I saw a rapid

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progression with inclusion.

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More and more of my professors

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were willing to work with me and

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disable student services on how

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to adapt to my disability by giving

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me more time for term papers

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making sure that I have good

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notetakers and etcetera.

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My first semester in college was

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very hard. I think that I had

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to retake all of my classes because

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I got no help. After that,

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I went to the DSS and they worked

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with me at taking the right classes

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and the right professors would

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make select accommodations for me.

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By the time I needed to take my

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core classes for my major

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the department head knew me and

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worked with me with my final thesis.

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By then, I needed a lot less services

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from DSS because my professors

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kept track of how I was doing.

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I was one of the first nonverbal student

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at the university who graduated with

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a speech communication degree.

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At a very young age I traveled a lot

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with my family. My parents always had

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a running checklist going be for we'd

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travel. For example, making sure there

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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

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are curb, cuts and sidewalks but there

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are more to it. Just because is not

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diagnosed with a disability doesn't mean

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that they don't use the services either.

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For example, I know regular people that

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turn on subtitles when they are

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watching TV. They don't have hard of

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hearing but they agree that they get

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more content when they are reading

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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 Disability Act, I

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strongly believe that we would have

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gone backwards with education,

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employment, healthcare and so on.

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Communication is very important to me.

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Since I have to use Augmentative

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and Alternative Communication Device

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i've always prioritized technology and

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communication together in

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my daily routine.

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I've seen access to the much better

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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

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to make a phone call I can always

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find one that is easily accessible.

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There is more awareness for being

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nonverbal now.

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As the population gets more used to

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the disabled community, people are

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more aware that there are other forms

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of communication such as ASL,

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AEC and so on.

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One of the main barriers that I

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always see is economic and equality

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between people with disability and

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able bodied. Our society tends to

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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

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that are highly educated and more than

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willing to earn a fair wage of living.

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Also, our government digs people who

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are getting SSI or other types of services

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For example, I've worked for an

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educational publisher for 16 years and

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due to the pandemic, I needed to take

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a leave of absence for however long

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because of my disability, I can only work

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part-time. I also get SSDI based of my

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work credits that I accumulated over

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the years. When I was working,

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I needed to make sure not to accede too

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much or else I would lose my benefits.

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How is this fair?

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There should be a baselined living

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wage from the government under the

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ADA act so that people with diabilities

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are encouraged to work and more

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importantly, employers are willing to

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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

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institutions. The White House Corona

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Virus task force hasn't really mentioned

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anything on how to be safe within our

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community. Seems like that our

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community is being left behind.

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There is no awareness at all or any

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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

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community. In California we are required

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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

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not able to wear any kind of mask.

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One idea would be to form a committee

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with all the national organizations such

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as United Cerebral Palsy,

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Muscular Dystrophy Association,

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a society and many others to

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form one union on the main purpose

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of protecting the most vulnerable

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from the virus.

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More importantly we can come up

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with some kind of procedures, guidelines,

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and distributing of information

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nationally and locally since these

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organizations have offices around

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the country it wouldn't be too difficult

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to outreach and create a database on how

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we are doing and for those areas

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who are seeing a spike of infections in

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group homes and such. We can

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do more outreach and offer more

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support.