Personal Narrative: My Experiences With Disabilities

Most of society does not see the challenges that people with disabilities go through. I also think that if the world had more resources for those with disabilities we could erase prejudice. For example, more hospitals should provide an ASL interpreter for the patients who cannot understand what the doctors are saying and can’t express their issues to their doctors. All in all, society just needs a better understanding of what people with disabilities go through on a day to day basis.

I was adopted by my Grandfather, David Crawford, when I was 11 years old. Along with me (is) my two younger brothers, Nick age 15 and Caleb age 14. Nick has autism and every August through October Saturdays for the past 5 year the whole family has participated in Challenger Baseball, an non profit organization set up in different towns around the United States that provides a positive environment for children with disability to play on a baseball team against other challenger teams. My grandfather actually set up the Bond County district after finding a love for it when Nick played in Edwardsville, Il. Aside from the players there are buddies that help each individual play, buddies help their player bat, run around the bases, play catch, and

There are plenty of well-education successful professionals with disabilities that were given the opportunity and education. If we as a country want to continue to compete on a global scale; we have to include all are citizens as able body individuals with a multitude of gifts and talents to contribute to society, if we just give them the

Tyrone Smith, Artist extraordinaire, is the focus of this interaction. I have known Tyrone for about 6 years. We met when he began working at my job. I was responsible for his training. I have known Tyrone for some time, but have never asked him about his hearing loss or deafness. Intrigued to know more I requested to interview him on a beautiful day during our lunch break. He is the first deaf/HOH person I ever met. He is funny, extremely talented and a dedicated father, who speaks well though he is deaf.

Amy was finally going home, and Jim was all thumbs when it came to helping her into the wheelchair to ride down to the car from her hospital room. She had balloons of every size and shape, flowers stuffed animals and cards which didn’t help Jim at all.

Middle school has proven to be an unpredictable time in the lives of many teens. I found this to be the case for myself as well as many of my classmates. Although, it is also a time of self-discovery and trying to figure out where one fits in. Throughout my first year, I noticed some kids were being excluded. These were kids who had disabilities. People that went to my middle school were neither accepting nor pleasant towards people who differed from them. I decided to make it my mission to befriend the kids with disabilities and try to change the bullies' perspectives. I got involved in a program called peer insights which gave kids in the program a chance to get to know kids that might not be in their everyday classes. The 'mentors' (this

One strange day a mentally disabled teen sat in the chair next to me during school lunch. The teen seemed partially atrophied and his movements were like that of a puppet; he would rub his hands together in excitement, however the hands themselves remained almost entirely limp, only forced together by his arms. He began to attempt to communicate with me. He made strange movements and screeching sounds, attracting the attention of several students in the vicinity. As I felt the gaze of more and more people on us, I wished to escape the situation. I wanted to get up and go to the bathroom, to get more food, or anything that could allow me to escape the spotlight. Unfortunately, leaving him when he was clearly trying to talk to me would be

All throughout my elementary school years, I knew that there was something special about a student named Mat. He was always so friendly and excited to be at school and see all of his classmates. However, when someone would make him upset, he would not be able to contain himself. He would constantly over exaggerate, take things too personal, and blow many things out of proportion. Matt would sing and dance for everyone, even if it was not the necessary time to be doing these actions. I always wondered what made him act so much different than everyone else within my class. He continually looked up at the ceiling or sky when someone would talk to him. Matt considered everyone his best friend and

Ever since I could remember I had been labeled the learning disabled child and asked myself what if I challenged that label. My story begins sometime around the end of my seventh grade year when my grades band had been offered the opportunity to march as an eighth grader in high school band. The auditions were set one week from that date in which I figured I would try out and see what happens.

I was born with neurosensorial hearing loss, which presents difficulties to me in the academic setting. Because I might not hear everything an instructor or a classmate said during lecture or discussion, I must be proactive in spreading awareness to my colleagues so that they can speak more loudly than usual. Additionally, I might need to work with my instructor after class to make sure that I heard the material correctly. This support network is made possible through my proactiveness and my determination to prevent my disability from controlling my life. Living with an invisible disability taught me how to interact with people who might have a form of an invisible disability; I believe that I am more receptive toward people who might require

A forty-five years old woman with burgundy highlights mixed with brown, black, and white roots and diamond shaped head with Asian eyes, a bulbous nose, and natural pointy lips works in modern-day Pearlridge’s dialysis center as a technician. She pushed her invalid old lady patient in a wheelchair around but started to slip off. Taking responsibility, she caught her patient in time, but, to her dismay, she pulled and strained her rhomboid muscle from her dominant arm, misaligning her bones. Then, it struck her, she asked herself a crucial question, will she recover in time for her flights with her family?

There are things in our life that we should appreciate and thank god everyday for being able to do whatever we want. Living with a disability is a very hard thing to do, but also not impossible. I have seen several videos about people who are living with disabilities, some of them from the day of birth and some others from an accident in their life. It is hard to see how they are living their lives to resist the hard challenges, but it is even more admired to see how they fight those challenges. I think it is very important to support them. Especially their families, they are the ones who gave them the support and motivation they need to success in their lives. In one of the videos I saw, there is a man from Iraq despite being neglected by

For everyone who wants to know what it is like to wake up every day with a disability which cannot change it sucks. But hey, I’m alive. I still have two arms, two legs and a proudly ticking heart that isn’t giving up. One which isn’t letting the bullies get to me, one which will stand tall above it all.

In elementary school, my reading and writing with was poor and I have not at the level I needed to be for my age. My teachers had become concerned and sent me to another teacher that specialized in helping student become better readers and writing, as well as identify if student have learning disabilities. I can remember the exercises that really showed how much I was struggling. I was told to spell the word cat and I was timed as well. I had no idea how to spell this word, so I start to freak out I did not know what to do. I really could not admit and say I do not know how to spell this word. I had to cry and I was holding it back but I could not and the tears just came rolling down my face. This is the one time I ever cried in front of a

It doesn’t matter what you look like on the outside, it’s what’s on the inside that counts, but our society today lacks to understand that. In today’s time different is not accepted, people that are different are discriminated, looked down upon and usually picked on. People with disabilities are seen as different creatures by most people, the disabled don’t choose to be the way they are, but still our society alienates them. There are different types of disabilities, some type of disabilities are; mental disability, physical disability, learning disability and socializing disability. These disabilities are seen as weakness in our society that hence contribute to the stereotype that leads to the discrimination against the disabled.