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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.