This is how things were when I was growing up:
In 1987 the year I started kindergarten, I was a student in the occupationally handicapped class. This was how we were identified as a group until I graduated from elementary school.
When I was in junior high school until I finished high school, our classes were known as special education/special day classes.
Entering college was the first time I had what has come to be known as a general education experience, which meant I was expected to do most of my work with the same guidelines as everyone else.
While I was in college, I joined an advocacy group called helping hands, a school club that promoted disability awareness and normalized using a piece of equipment.
Near the end of college, I met my best friend, Noel, who taught me to see my cerebral palsy as part of me , but not a disability.
Together, we concluded that; the word disability should only apply to things that can not move and not people because people are capable of thinking, having feelings, and loving others, so I’m on a mission to teach people to start saying I am an equipment user because people are not broken down machines
Encouragement Notes Podcast 