Panel Meets, Interacts with Vaile Students

Last Friday, I drove my scooter through the halls of Vaille Elementary School until I reached the Gym. I shook hands with Richmond's Mayor Sally Hutton, Lori Lakes and Jane Zimmerman. Then I joined a panel of disabled persons from the Community Council On Disability Awareness including Josh Williams who has Cerebral Palsy and uses a power chair, and Tracy Taylor who was born without part of the spine, is unusually short and walks with Canadian Crutches. A moment later 84 Kindergarten and first grade students silently marched in and sat down on the floor.

Zimmerman works for Community Connections and is the president of the Community Council on Disability Awareness. Lakes works for the Fifth Freedom Network.

Then I joined a panel of disabled persons from the Community Council on Disability Awareness including Josh Williams, who has cerebral palsy and uses a power chair, and Tracy Taylor, who was born without part of the spine, is unusually short and walks with Canadian Crutches.

Williams is a student at Indiana University East and is running as a candidate for Richmond Common Council. Taylor is the assessment coordinator at IU East, assisting students who have disabilities.

Jane welcomed the students, and the Mayor proclaimed 2007 "The Year of Accessibility." She announced that the City of Richmond, in cooperation with the Community Council On Disability Awareness, the Independent Living Center, and Fifth Freedom would be working on two projects to improve accessibility for disabled residents. This Spring we will seek to improve disabled parking in Richmond's historic depot district. In the Fall we will conduct a "Clear The Isle” campaign, working with store managers to keep isles clear of merchandise so that customers with walkers, wheel chairs or scooters can shop without running into obstacles.

With great expression the Mayor read a book about children with different disabilities entitled, "Someone Like You." Then Lori asked the students if they had any questions about people with disabilities.

A girl asked, "How can a blind person read and write?" Lori handed me the microphone. "They can read and write in Braille which uses raised dots to make the alphabet. Even though they can not see printed letters with their eyes, they can feel these raised dots and read with their fingers. Other blind people like me use computers with screen readers to read and write. A boy asked, "How can you walk if you don't have any legs?" Josh answered, "I have legs, but I can't walk, so I have this power chair. I drive it with a joy stick, see?" He tilted his chair back, drove forward and back, then drove in circles. The kids laughed, "Cool!". Tracy added, "I have a friend who was born without legs. She gets around by sitting on a big skate board and pushes herself forward with her hands. She wears shoes on her hands and walks faster than I can." A boy asked, "How can you play basketball if you have no hands?" Tracy answered, "If you don't have any hands you probably can't play basketball, but you could be a pretty good soccer player. That's a game where you are not allowed to touch the ball with your hands."

As I drove back down the hall a girl tapped me on the shoulder. "Is it bad to be disabled?" "No!" I smiled. "My life is really pretty good. We didn't come here to make you feel sorry for us. But life in this city would be better for people who have trouble walking if there were more reserved parking places for us next to stores and restaurants, and if the isles were nice and wide and clear when we go shopping."

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Dr. Greene is an ordained minister of the United Church of Christ and a resident of Richmond, IN. He is also the author of Benjamin's Dog Joseph, Feeling Better: The Wisdom of the Doc, You Can Feel Better: How to cope with chronic pain and physical disabilities, and co-author of Walking Free: the Nellie Zimmerman Story.

For further information about his books, please visit www.densmorereid.com

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