transabled.org

Football woes

by Alby - 10 February 2007

I was four years old. My father, who taught public high school, was president of the athletic association of the school and, as such, ran all the athletic events.

Casted neighbor

by John - 9 February 2007

At about age 4 or 5, a neighbor kid, around my age, had both legs in full casts and a bar between them holding his casted legs in one position. I remember his parents carrying him out and setting him down in the yard. I think I also remember him peeing into a jar.

Blindsimming, age 8

by Claire -

By age 8 I was in third grade and in class we had to choose a book to read. I chose a book about a blind boy. I was fascinated by the book and blindness, and started blindsimming daily. We had a bathroom that had no window, so when the light was off, it was pitch black in there. Every day for months I would take my shower and get ready for school in the pitch dark. I loved pretending to be blind, and I got quite good at finding my way around the bathroom and performing my daily grooming in the dark.

Sightings

by John - 8 February 2007

A couple early "sightings" of people with disabilities seem to have had impact, an amputee woman in a skirt, a high heel, crutches and one leg missing; somebody in a wheelchair, with both legs in long braces; a kid at school with an artificial leg and another with a hearing aid or aids. All these would be from about age 5 to 7 and, obviously, are just snippets of memory but have been with me all my life.

Prosthetic shop

by Rob -

my first memorys are from age 5-6 years old. We lived behind a prosthetic shop. As a young child I would see many disabled come and go. Both men and women. They were amputees, paras, I guess now most might have been polio, this was back in 1960-1965, wheelchairs, braces. I once walked around to the front of the shop, and in the window, a display of limbs, braces, shoes. I’m sure this is what sparked my fire. I felt that I should be one of these lucky people. I too needed to use crutches, be in a wheelchair.

One day I saw a man throwing trash out, after the shop closed I went over, looked in the can and found a AFO brace.I took it home. From that day on