Livingwitha Disability

Living with a Disability:

Name is not your ordinary paraplegic. When observing someone with a disability such as Name, it is only human nature to stereotype his feelings and emotions concerning his disability. What social, emotional, psychological, physical, vocational, or functional challenges are associated with this kind of disability? Probably nine out of ten people would respond by saying, "He must be depressed". Well, this is how Name responded when asked about his emotions just after his accident, "There wasn't any time to be depressed, I had to graduate high school and find a job".

Name was sixteen years old when he was involved in a car accident. The accident left him paralyzed from the mid-chest down, and he is classified as a T-4. He did indeed, finish high school and is now attending California University pursuing a four-year degree in Business. More impressively, he is playing wheelchair basketball for the number one nationally ranked team Cal. University. Name is known among the wheelchair basketball circuit, because he is a T-4. You see, the players are classified according to their injury, one through four, with "one's" being the highest level of injury. Name is a "one", and is known because of his drive and ability to play basketball with such a high level of injury.

It has been almost seven years since his accident and when asked how he overcame his problems he said he adjusted to his new lifestyle "With the support of my family and friends". When I asked Name how he felt about his disability he answered, "It has broadened my horizons and made me look at life in a whole new perspective. Things that I used to take for granted, I don't anymore."

As mentioned earlier, Name is attends college and plays on the basketball team. In addition to that, he is very physically and socially active, he's just one of those guys that never meets a stranger. Not only does he play basketball, but he also hunts, fishes, and has even water-skied! He is very independent, lives by himself, (and as he said)"drives a full-sized Chevrolet pick-up".

When it comes to vocational or functional challenges, his attitude is that nothing will stand in his way. When I asked him about the vocational challenges, he stated that, "there are regulations that employers must meet", implying that