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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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and many others to form one union