For as long as I can remember, people have asked me about my disability. "Did you have a stroke?" they asked. "No, I have Cerebral Palsy," I would reply. To that I would get a simple "Oh." There are many misconceptions about my disability. The first is that it is a disease. Cerebral Palsy is not a disease, it is a birth defect. In many cases, such as my own, it happens at the time of birth and it is caused by lack of oxygen to the brain. The severity of this disability depends on how long the child was without oxygen.
I have a friend who has no speech impediment while another has one so severe that only those of us that grew up with her understand her. Me? I fall somewhere in the middle. While I hardly give my disability a second thought, there are certain times that it makes me very insecure. I was in speech therapy from the time I was three years old until I was 16 years old. At that point, the therapist told my mother they were sorry and it wasn't going to get any better than that. I was at an age where it was not going to change, despite the fact it had improved considerably.
In school, confidence was never an issue when it came to giving presentations. I was always the one who wanted to go first or be the group leader. It wasn't until after college when I was looking for a job that I received a rude awakening. There was an opening for an executive assistant at an office. I met all the requirements, so I sent in my resumé. The gentleman who I suppose was going to be my supervisor had I been hired called me one morning for a preliminary phone interview. From the moment he heard my voice, he sounded incredulous, dare I say angry. His words still resonate with me to this very day. "You talk like that...you have a speech problem and you want to be my assistant?" Before I could formulate a response, he hung up on me.
That had to be illegal, right? Discrimination, to say the least. Wrong. According to the EEOC, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, if a business/business owner feels you will not present their business to the public in a positive light, they do not have to hire you. I believe this only applies to private business owners, though.
I've had jobs since then where the employer did not want me to answer the phone. Personal customer contact was fine, just no answering any phone calls. Nine months later, I was the office manager and answering 90% of the calls received. What changed? It was a necessity. We were too busy for me not to answer, so he conceded.
Most of the time, I don't give my speech a second thought. That is until I meet someone new and I watch them silently mouth what I'm saying so that they can process it. I've received rude looks, snarky comments, and been laughed at just because I don't sound the way people think I should. My personal favorite is I sound retarded. I suppose that's why I take so much offense to that word being used by people. "Oh, that's retarded." Maybe it's you who is after all retarded for using that as an insult.
My life as a disabled person has been filled with struggles. Often times, people tell me they're sorry because I'm in a wheelchair. Why? I'm not. I'm proud of who I am, disability and all. I am a self-employed, very active young woman.
How many able bodied people can say the same?
Until next time, this is my life as a dis-handi-capable person.
