I hate stairs   In case of a fire, use the elevator. Quickly.

Mississippi State’s Lee Hall auditorium filled to capacity Tuesday for the screening of “Darius Goes West,” an independent film about a teenager with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy who embarks on a west-bound road trip. Darius, who’s friends helped him make the trip, left his home of Athens, GA on an adventure across the country to get his wheelchair “pimped” on MTV’s Pimp My Ride.

Matt and I were allowed to enter the auditorium early to find a place to park our chairs before the crowd congested the aisles. Ironically (maybe), the place chosen for the screening was one of the more inaccessible buildings on campus. It remains that way largely because of its historical value. It’s an old building, but its classic. However, the auditorium was recently renovated extensively. Ramps had even been constructed to allow wheelchairs onto the stage. Unfortunately, the planners of the renovation failed to include sufficient wheelchair seating in the auditorium. The organizers of the screening made up for it (or tried to) by reserving the entire front row, allowing wheelchairs to park in front of the seats. Not wanting to stick out, Matt and I parked to the far right of the front row.

I had high hopes for the film, but I was a bit skeptical as well. I was unsure how the film would present life with a disability (in this case, one similar to mine). I was unsure how my non-disabled peers would react. Would it give them a better understanding of how one lives with a disability? Would it confirm that people with disabilities have no hope and should just play and be taken care of until they die? Would it invoke empathy or sympathy? Would it make them think of people with disabilities as slightly inferior (in an unconscious way)?

The storyline was definitely the stuff of a documentary film. An ordinary kid. A bold quest. I couldn’t help but think that it would be entertaining, while also showing how ordinary people with disabilities live life.

And so we watched as Darius and his good friends set out for California. They had ups and downs along the way, but they always made the best of the downs. The often used humor to turn a crappy situation into a funny one. I won’t ruin it for you, since you’re going to buy the film on DVD, but it was a success.

While it was somewhat touching and emotionally dramatic, which I think is what many expected, it also realistically showed some the issues people with MD face. It emphasized empathy. It emphasized the need for accessibility. Yeah, it was probably not presented the way I, my brother, or other person with a disability would have presented it, but Darius’ crew presented it well from the perspective of the non-disabled person. They did so with understanding. Audiences probably relate to the film more from this perspective.

Best of all, they helped show something that I, for one, find difficult to express at times. Personality. We got to know Darius. His jokes. His smack talk. His laugh. His attitude. His talents. His passions. The things that make Darius, well, Darius. I’ve felt, at times, that having a disability made social interactions trickier and more awkward than if I had not had a disability. Sometimes it takes people a while to get to know me because of that barrier. Some people click with me easily, some don’t. I suppose that’s what it’s like with everyone. But of everything in the film, the revelation of Darius’ personality best provides understanding about people with disabilities. That they are just that. People.

DGW—Know about it.

You may not be able to tell from the title, but this post is going to be a book review of sorts. One Mary Johnson from one Ragged Edge Magazine penned a manual called “Disability Awareness—Do It Right!”

I was inspired to read this book, which I actually bought last year, because my student organizations disability awareness event(s) are coming up in October. Had I known that this book would help me clarify my perception of disability and awareness of it, I would of read it the day I bought it.

Johnson begins the path to understanding by helping the reader “unlearn” the things he or she “knows” about disability awareness days—and disability in general. Johnson introduces a largely unknown, but not new, way of thinking about disability awareness. Her ideas are not the result of a mere “gut feeling.” In Disability Awareness, Johnson looks to civil rights movements in the past, research from universities, and insight from disability activists to shed light on disability, awareness of it, and how disability awareness events should be approached to achieve optimal results.

Johnson bases much, if not all, of her ideas on the social model of disability. Since I entered the disability blogosphere just two and a half months ago in June 2008, I have been trying to understand the social model of disability as opposed to the medical model.

The social model divides the term “disability” into two parts. There’s the impairment, which is the actual blindness, muscle weakness, paralysis, disease, or other loss of function. Then there’s the disability, which is the extent to which the person with the impairment is “disabled” due to society’s failure to accommodate him or her (e.g., no ramp onto a sidewalk). To better understand this idea, let’s look at a real-life example.

Before McCool Hall, a building on campus, was renovated and expanded, I had one completely accessible entrance. There was a level, automatic-by-motion-sensor door in the back of the building. Freeze. My impairment is my Spinal Muscular Atrophy. My disability was the fact that I could not enter in the front of the building because the fully accessible entrance was in the back of the building. Continue.

McCool Hall underwent renovation and expansion. The building expansion resulted in the once-accessible entrance being covered up by the add-on, which itself did not have an accessible entrance. In the days right after the building reopened for the new semester, there was no accessible entrance. I missed my first class. Freeze. My impairment? Still the same. My disability, however, had changed for the worse—I was not able to attend class because there were no accessible entrances to the building. While a handful of accessibility concerns remains, McCool is now more accessible (at least to people using wheelchairs) as it includes three accessible entrances.

Considering this social model of disability, Johnson helps the reader clarify and understand the goal of a disability awareness day. She provides tips on how to get the intended message to the target audience while avoiding any “unintended consequences.”

“Disability Awareness—Do It Right!” is a must-read for anyone involved in planning an effective disability awareness day that focuses on change. Thank you Mary Johnson. Thank you.

Mississippi State University is home to a small group of students with disabilities who seek to improve the college experience for other students with disabilities. We are called United Students. With the new school year beginning, we are preparing to have our first meeting and begin coming up with ideas.

I want us to do more this year. Over the last year or two, we’ve narrowed our efforts to two main events during the school year.

• In the Fall semester, we host an outdoor event associated with National Disability Awareness Month (October). We usually have a variety of information to hand out, along with various activities. Some of the activities have included letting people complete tasks in wheelchairs and experience simulation goggles (impaired vision). I have questioned the effectiveness of some of these activities, but in the end, the group decided on implementing them.
• In the Spring semester, we host a luau in appreciation of those who regularly assist people with disabilities. We invite readers, writers, attendants, and others to the Mahalo Luau (”mahalo” is the Hawaiian equivalent of “thank you”). In addition, each of our members (about 10) invites one faculty member who has been particularly helpful and or influential. We had about 40 guests in total.

In addition to these events we discuss accessibility issues on campus, and generally support each other as students with disabilities.

I’m fairly happy with our Mahalo Luau. We do need to tighten up on invitations and planning, but the event is fun and appreciated by our guests.

However, I am not satisfied with our disability awareness event in the fall. Not that we didn’t try, but that our event wasn’t effective. I want to do more than sit at a table in the sun and pass out literature about a handful of disabilities. I don’t mean to be harsh, I just think we can do more.

So I’m going to be meeting with the other officers and our new faculty adviser sometime in the very near future to discuss our approach for the coming year. We will also be having our first meeting soon. I’m hoping we can get some brainstorming going on to find a more effective way to increase disability awareness on campus.

What is disability awareness, anyway?

In the simplest terms, I would say that the disability awareness of a person is his or her ability to treat a person with a disability like any other person. That is the goal I would like to achieve with our awareness fair. I want to bring down social barriers between people with and without disabilities. When people with and without disabilities on campus feel just as comfortable around each other as with anyone else, my desired goal will be reached.

I realize this isn’t a scholarly definition, but it’s what I think disability awareness is. What do you say it is?

A disability awareness how-to manual

That’s what I need. And actually, I have one. I just to need to find it. But I would like some ideas from the community, especially ideas that you know, from experience, work.

Our disability awareness events need not take place all at once. We can do several things and spread them out. One year, we had an outdoor awareness fair during the middle of the day, and had a panel discussion that night. We had somewhat low attendance, but that was more of a PR failure. I liked the idea because it was a more intimate atmosphere, and our personalities could really show. I wouldn’t mind trying this again if we could come up with the right questions and topics.

Any ideas?

From coast to coast, kindergarten to college, it’s that time again. That’s right Stair-haters, it’s school time. My brother and I got moved in to our apartments on campus this past Saturday. Classes begin a week from today. I’ll be using this week to get books, set schedules, break in the new attendants, get parking decals, blah blah blah. That’s just side stuff to me. This week is really about getting adjusted to being more independent. The summer spoils me. I get lazy. I don’t have very much responsibility in the summer. I have an attendant who stays from early in the morning to mid-afternoon during the summer. That means I never have to figure out how I am going to do things as simple as eating and using the restroom.

But now I’m “on my own” in a sense. I have a good crew of attendants, but there are strict schedules to plan around, and I have a significant amount of time without an attendant. Spending three hours alone in the morning and five hours alone in the afternoon is a big breath of independence for me—and likely others with similar neurological disorders. No worries though. I have a safety net should something go wrong. Disability Support Services is great at Mississippi State, and I can usually get in touch with one of the six attendants working with me and my brother.

The week before school is a time when the bumps of my complex routine smooth out and become second nature to me. Then I have the physical, mental, and emotional strength to focus on the “normal” (should I say common?) aspects of college life. You know, like classes. And learning.

The week has begun a bit rocky, but the future looks good. Our new attendant will likely have the hang of our little quirks by the end of next week. By that time, the shyness on both sides should be getting better and we will get to know each other. It is a process I go through almost every year. It is a process through which I will always go. I will always need a caregiver. I just hope I keep finding good ones.

So that’s where I’m at right now. I’m looking forward to the school year and it’s affect on this blog. I will be tackling issues that face me and talking to my friends about issues that face them. Should make for some good writings.

Today, I went to a hiring seminar hosted by Apple. If you haven’t yet heard the news, Mississippi is getting an Apple Retail Store at the Renaissance at Colony Park in Ridgeland. This is a huge, huge opportunity for me. I found out that they have a group focused on serving small to medium-sized businesses. I was immediately interested in that role, given my background in BIS and my MBA-in-progress.

I will hopefully be interviewed later this week by the manager. The only thing I’m worried about is my one year delay (school) until I’m available. And, well, there is one more thing that is in the back of my mind.

It’s what this blog is about. It’s why I started this blog. Yep, you guessed it. My disability. Don’t worry about bringing out those violins yet. I’m just saying. It’s there.

It hasn’t really stopped me yet. But school is different. They’re getting paid. But when it comes to the workforce, especially when the economy isn’t great, businesses are going to be really choosy. Because they’re spending money. I’m not saying that my disability in and of itself will rule me out, but it would probably be an unintentional, unconscious factor. Like maybe a lack a body language. Or communication that isn’t engaging. Or the fact that I wear no shoes (but really nice socks!!).

I’m going to be honest. I am a little apprehensive about how customers might respond. The last thing I would want is for a potential customer to feel awkward. If I’m having these thoughts, it would seem that the manager/staffer at Apple could have these thoughts, in some form or another.

Like I said though. These are in the back of my mind. You can believe I’m going to be as confident as ever in the interview. I’m not going to let this turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy of negativity. I want to work at Apple far too much to let that happen. But these are things I have thought about.

We were promised that the hiring process would not be “drug out.” The store is going to opening near the end of August, and they will need a team of about 30 by then.

So, I should know more soon. I’ll keep you posted. There’s a chance I won’t make the cut, but I’m planning for the best. Long live Appleheads!

Lloyd: What are the chances of a guy like you and a girl like me… ending up together?

Mary: Well, that’s pretty difficult to say.

Lloyd: Hit me with it! I’ve come a long way to see you, Mary. The least you can do is level with me. What are my chances?

Mary: Not good.

Lloyd: You mean, not good like one out of a hundred?

Mary: I’d say more like one out of a million.

[pause]

Lloyd: So you’re telling me there’s a chance!

Or at least now they can be.

I’m going to do some market testing with a product idea that I hope will not destroy the readership this blog is suppose to serve. About a month ago, my brother and I stumbled upon an idea. It was funny. To us. Then we thought, “There’s millions of people like us.” Could we sell our idea? It was so crazy it just might work. We brainstormed for a couple of hours and came up with about fifteen to twenty funny, edgy lines about disability to be printed on t-shirts. We put them through our own critiques and narrowed the list to about nine. We want to pick about three to print, and then we’ll go from there.

So this is a good time for my disclaimer. It’s possible that some of our shirt ideas could be offensive to some people. We mean the best. Really. And a lot of these shirts could potentially be ice-breakers to help get past social barriers. But we want to know which ones will cause laughing-induced snorts and which ones would best be put to rest. So if one does offend you, let me know. If you can’t continue reading because you’re laughing to hard, wait a second, take a deep breath, and let me know which one was awesome.

Okay. Now that we’ve put that behind us, let us continue. I’m going to give these images title attributes, so I think screen readers will be okay. Someone let me know if I’m wrong there and need to type each caption in the text.

Since I’m a little biased, many of these shirts are meant for wheelchair users (although there is a good one for people who are blind). So I find it helpful to imagine an unsuspecting able-body person and a disabled person (probably in a wheelchair) approaching each other on the sidewalk. The disabled person is wearing a shirt that says:

Now you know where that silly blog name came from. :-)

Great t-shirt ideas? Or greatest t-shirt ideas? Let me know in the comments, would ya?

Today marks my first Sunday of writing I hate stairs. God has blessed me richly. If it wasn’t for Him, I would not be where I am today. Through the work of many brothers and sisters in Christ, as well as many others, sufficient funds were raised to build me and my brother a wheelchair accessible house about seven years ago. About a year before that, funds were raised to help us replace our 1979 Ford Club Wagon with a brand new accessible van.

It can almost be overwhelming to think of all the ways in which the Lord has blessed me and my family. I don’t know why we always doubt the Lord and His promises.

28″And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

We sometimes become so worried about these needs that God knows we have need of that we miss the bigger, more important promise.

36 “Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.”

37 When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”

38 Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.”

My grandfather used to say that if it wasn’t for the second part of verse 39, he wouldn’t have a shot at heaven. “The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off…” He said he was “far off” on three counts. First, he was not a Jew, so he was far off in ethnicity. Second, he was born in Rome, Mississippi, far off in location. And thirdly, he lived almost 2000 years since the promise was made, putting him far off in time as well.

But the promise was made. It was made.

Last month, I discovered a new sport for people with disabilities. I have never really been involved in sports, other than some teeball when I was younger, and some occasional backyard football. I’ve been practicing this summer with a startup team in Jackson playing power soccer.

Power soccer is a unique sport in that it, unlike many other wheelchair sports, requires using a power chair to play. It doesn’t require upper body strength like wheelchair basketball and similar sports do. It does require the player to adequately control his wheelchair. However, players do not necessarily need to own and regularly use a power chair. If the team has an extra power chair, anyone with a disability can play, whether he normally uses a power chair or not. As long as he can control it.

You might be wondering how power soccer differs from standard soccer. I won’t get into all the specifics, but I will discuss some of the basics briefly. If you want, download the full Laws of the Game. I will be using some of the images from it.

The game is played on a standard basketball court. That works well because it’s indoors (concrete and tarmac are to be avoided), keeping players out of the elements. Here is a diagram showing the playing field.

Teams consist of four players each, excluding players “on the bench.” Although the main requirment is a power wheelchair, some other equipment is needed as well.

The footguard (shown above) is the single most important piece of additional equipment. Handling the ball is not an easy task. Like any sport, practice is essential for a team. There are some strict rules in place, so players have to know where to be, what to do, and when and how to do it. For instance, the 2-on-1 Rule.

In the image above, player A is handling the ball. Only one player from each team can be playing the ball at one time. This rule is enforced by a three-meter halo. Since player B is helping player A by blocking off the opponent while inside the halo, he is gaining an illegal advantage. It takes some quick thinking and good awareness to avoid these situations. Power soccer is a fast-paced game. Many times, the ball (and sometimes wheelchairs!) go flying out of bounds. The out-of-bounds rule is worth mentioning here.

As shown in the above image, the entire ball (from a top view) must be over the out-of-bounds line. Until it crosses that line, players can leave the playing field and position themselves to keep the ball in bounds.

Well, that’s the basics. If you want to learn more about power soccer, visit the US Power Soccer Web site and also check out this video from the Power Soccer World Cup. Also, feel free to contact me if you are interested in joining the Jackson Jammers. There is also a team in Hattisburg, MS and there may be a team starting in Starkville, MS as well. So if you are interested, let me know and I will put you in touch with someone who can make it happen.

And finally, a photo of the team—minus some new players who recently joined (click for larger image).