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- (electronic voice) Hi, My name is Tim
and I am from Orange County,
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and have cerebral palsy.
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I was born with cerebral palsy
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and not too sure
how I should answer this question.
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Because unlike an accident,
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or being 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,
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while I was growing up
I knew that I was different from the rest.
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But even now, my family does not point out
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that they have a disabled son,
brother, cousin, uncle, or friend.
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My CP 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 my brothers and their friends.
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For example, I always played
with my brothers,
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but when we played outside
with the neighborhood kids,
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I started noticing most of the adults
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started looking at me
moreso than their children.
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There is when I knew
that something was wrong with me
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and it wasn't because
I couldn't use my hands
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or run with my friends.
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Getting teased and being bullied
by other kids
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was easy for me to deal
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because I quickly learned how
to fight back.
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But, being not invited
to a classmate's birthday party
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and being told that I should go home
by an adult
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while my brothers
are playing with their kids
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has always impacted my life.
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In some ways, I've learned
that discrimination
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comes in all shapes and sizes,
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and/or by the color of your skin.
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I was in high school
when the ADA was signed.
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I really didn't see
that much of a difference.
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I was being a teenager,
going through crazy adolescence stuff.
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ADA started affecting me
when I started college
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and traveling a lot more.
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For example, when the ADA got signed
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and when I started
my first semester in college,
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I saw a rapid progression with inclusion.
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More and more of my professors
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were willing to work with me
and Disabled Student Services
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on how to adapt to my disability
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by giving me more time for term papers,
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making sure that I have
good notetakers and etcetera.
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My first semester in college
was very hard.
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I think that I had to retake
all of my classes again
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because I got no help.
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After that, I went to DSS
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and they worked with me
at taking the right classes
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and the right professors that would
make select accommodations for me.
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By the time I needed to take
my core classes for my major,
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the department head knew me
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and worked with me with my final thesis.
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By then, I needed
a lot less services from DSS
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because my professors
kept track of how I was doing.
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I was one of the first nonverbal student
at the university
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to graduated with
a speech communication degree.
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At a very young age,
I traveled a lot with my family.
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My parents always had
a running checklist going
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before we'd travel.
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For example, making sure there 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
are curb-cuts and sidewalks,
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but there are more to it.
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Just because someone
is not diagnosed with a disability
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doesn't mean that they
don't use the services either.
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For example, I know regular people
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that turn on subtitles
when they are watching TV.
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They don't have hard of hearing,
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but they agree
that they get more content
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when they are reading 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 Disabilities Act,
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I strongly believe that
we would have gone backwards
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with education, employment,
healthcare, and so on.
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Communication is very important to me.
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Since I have to use an Augmentative
and Alternative Communication Device,
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I've always prioritized technology
and communication
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together in my daily routine.
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I've seen access to be much better
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
to make a phone call,
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I can always find one
that is easily accessible.
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There is more awareness
for being nonverbal now.
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As the population gets more
used to the disabled community,
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people are more aware
that there are other forms
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of communication such as ASL,
AEC and so on.
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One of the main barriers that I always see
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is economic inequality
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between people with disability
and able-bodied.
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Our society tends to 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
that are highly educated
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and more than willing
to earn a fair wage of living.
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Also, our government dings people
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who are getting SSI
or other types of services.
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For example, I've worked
for an educational publisher
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for 16 years and due to the pandemic,
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I needed to take a leave of absence
for however long.
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Because of my disability,
I can only work part-time.
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I also get SSDI based off my work credits
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that I accumulated over the years.
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When I was working,
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I needed to make sure
not to exceed too much
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or else I would lose my benefits.
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How is this fair?
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There should be a baseline living wage
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from the government under the ADA act
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so that people with disabilities
are encouraged to work
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and more importantly,
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employers are willing to 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 institutions.
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The White House Coronavirus task force
hasn't really mentioned anything
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on how to be safe within our community.
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Seems like that
our community is being left behind.
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There is no awareness at all,
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or any 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 community.
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In California, we are required 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 not able to wear any kind of mask.
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One idea would be to form a committee
with all of the national organizations
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such as United Cerebral Palsy,
Muscular Dystrophy Association,
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Autism Society, and many others
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to form one unit on the main purpose
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of protecting the most vulnerable
from the virus.
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More importantly, we can come up
with some kind of procedures,
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guidelines, and distributing
of information nationally and locally.
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Since these organizations have
local offices throughout the country,
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it wouldn't be too difficult to outreach
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and create a database on how we are doing,
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and for those areas who are seeing
a spike of infections
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in group homes and such,
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we can do more outreach
and offer more support.