disability what makes people look at you
my mom is a special ed assistant and
works with many special ed kids around
campus and around this district a colony
high school a couple years ago she had
this one student whose favorite question
was to ask what is your disability this
question seems very bizarre until we
look at again from a new perspective we
all have something wrong with us whether
it be a tic and need to count everything
or something as weird as they need to
brush your teeth before you eat rather
than after we all view these tics about
us as imperfections and something that
makes us impure but to others like my
mom student it can make them feel normal
for me one of my many ticks is that I
have a condition called ocular cutaneous
albinism that affects my eyes in my
pigment I have uncorrectable vision
horrible horrible light sensitivity and
almost no depth perception and if you
haven’t noticed I have white everything
but on the bright side migraine process
will be less painful now I’m in
unfamiliar places or it is extremely
bright outside I use a white cane I
began to use this cane first semester of
sophomore year and the biggest memory I
have is the crude and ignorant comments
my peers would give me many forget that
just because I’m blind and I’m disabled
doesn’t blind and disabled means that I
can’t hear but in reality I can hear
very well and I can hear almost
everything many of them would bring on
questions like she can see why does she
need a cane she didn’t have one before
she was really one attention I learned
to ignore these as they made me feel bad
for them and like they’ve needed to be
informed and it made me realize that
while we do progress in human rights
civil rights gay rights and many others
we still shy from acceptance to people
who may appear different physically and
mentally quick disclosure I cannot speak
for anyone but myself these experiences
are personal but I’m speaking to others
with similar conditions and with other
disabilities I have come to find these
things being different
does not just affect the individual but
also affects families siblings and
relatives will oftentimes feel oppressed
and like they don’t quite fit in with
their family because all the attention
is drawn to the individual
my older sister back when I was cute and
little used to try to get rid of me and
try to shy me away from the family
because she felt that I took too much
attention from her and this lasted until
recently and I wasn’t six or she was in
sixth grade and I was in third grade and
she would get her friends to call me
bleach so that way I would leave her
alone even in public places these
individuals will be attacked at places
like the airport the TSA will oftentimes
hunt these individuals down to question
them making sure they’re not dangerous
kidnapped in the right place and other
things in other words we oftentimes
judge each other based on their
appearances and what we see them to be
this problem has gone on for a very long
time and we all understand it is an
issue but many of us do not know what we
can do as a society to help to improve
we can be patient people I asked our
band director at Los Osos High School
what he manages to do to accommodate all
these individuals who may have something
wrong with them or may need extra help
he said quote mainstreaming is good what
he meant by this is that while we still
manages while he still manages to
accommodate all these individuals it is
important to still treat them as normal
human beings and expect the same things
out of them as they do anyone else it is
important that we do not sugarcoat or
necessarily cook a cookie cut our way
around interactions with them but rather
we need to treat them as our best friend
with a little bit more patience
another thing is temptation humans are
very nosy creatures and we often like to
look at what we don’t understand and we
will stare at what we question I went to
go get blood work a couple weeks ago
with my mom and the room was as quiet as
a doctor’s office could be we were all
waiting for our turn to be poked when
all of a sudden this young man behind
the partition began screaming and crying
and being frustrated my mom quickly
realized that this void most likely had
autism and was just scared of the
environment and the needles and the
doctor and all the people
this old lady across the room did not
understand that she began declaring that
that young man was too old to be
screaming like that and that he needed
to be taken care of she got up from her
chair and went to go see for herself
what she believed to be an open freak
show many of us all had the same
temptation we wanted to go make sure he
was okay make sure he wasn’t being hurt
and just generally see if he was all
right
but all of us fought the temptation out
of respect for him because he is a human
being not just a person with something
wrong with them we’ve all done something
embarrassing that we’ve all woken up
around midnight wondering why we did
that couple years ago regretting it but
what imagine what that situation could
be like if we just knew someone felt our
pain someone has done the same thing
or someone knew what was happening for
me one of my biggest motivations to not
quit using my cane out of embarrassment
was the fact that people stick up for me
and that people managed to tell others
what was wrong with me and make sure
that I wasn’t alone we can change
ignorant in society by especially
showing the youth and others around us
what disabilities like mine and like
yours are like many reasons I did
receive so much hate when I began to use
my cane was that many didn’t know that
people with disabilities could exist
like this and that someone who can see
the board may need a cane to walk
outside it may be dependent on a stick
if someone had spoken up for me from the
beginning and told me that it was going
to be okay imagine how much more
acceptance I would have felt and how
much less hate I would have received we
all impact each other regardless of if
we interact with each other we all can
wait can create a chain reaction if one
person spoke up for someone imagine what
that would do for someone else whether
that action be something as small as
saying good morning how are you what did
you have for dinner last night or
something as large as selling someone to
back off when they’re being mean to them
we can improve improve society by
bringing more awareness and acceptance
to people like me and like you may if
you’re who different thank you [Applause]