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She got my foot in and I did the rest

"She" in the heading above is referring to this young informant's mother. The quotation gives emphasis to the importance of the parents' role for a good start in life for children with disabilities.

"Well, since I was small I could always vividly remember I was always a part of the family. If reading was done I was required to read too. If there was speaking they would tell me to watch my tone of voice. They tried to discipline and guide me in the area of social skills. Not because I had a disability I was spoilt and allowed to do what I wanted. That was not the point. The emphasis was always on my achievement. If I wanted to open a bottle my family would say 'Don't open it for her! Let's see how she will figure it out on her own.' So I grew up in an environment of always figuring out things, which has been able to take me through life. What will this child be able to do for herself? And that's one of the unique things about my mother. She always thought about the future and now she's deceased. A future without her I am able to.

I know him (my father) but he has never been a part of my life. I don't know. I can only speculate. There was never anyone born with disability in either family. Maybe they acquired it through an accident or somehow but no one was born with it. So I think... I don't know if mentally he could have coped with it. He probably saw it as something with himself. Something wrong with him that caused me to be born this way. He left when I was seven days old and never returned to our family.

I always had a dream to acquire an education, to become an accountant. I resented the fact that in school some teachers limited me to do vocational training courses or skills training courses with no emphasis on academic achievement. I had to do self-advocacy telling them 'No, I want to do accountancy not home-economics or craft or whatever.' That was a revolution to their mind. I got a lot of resistance as I wanted to go into the business stream of high school. I know its breaking barriers actually. The first is always the hardest. But going through the system, very few persons with physical disabilities, severe ones like mine, have gone through the system and have come out at the tertiary level of education.

With the work CBR has done it has become easier. There are a lot of teachers who are sensitized about what persons with disabilities can do. CBR's emphasis really has been on sensitization of the rights of persons with disabilities, knowing your rights. They give you advocacy skills. But in terms of advocating and lobbying on the whole that has not really been the emphasis of CBR.

I self-advocate for many jobs in different fields. Most times people will call me for an interview because they have seen my qualification on paper and when I turn up for the interview they will see that it's someone with a disability, and it has never occurred to them that if I can acquire the qualification that I can also work. They always see obstacles that can prevent me from working.

A lot of the young persons with disabilities feel that their life has no meaning because they do not work. They see themselves as not having a job and see themselves as depending upon society, but some of them are also "sweet skin", not wanting to get their hands dirty. Some people have had so many bad experiences of quite callous professionals who think that, if too many persons with disabilities shine they will be out of a job. Also, too many parents cannot see behind the disability of the child so they refuse to fight for that child's needs and support that child when that child wants something. A lot of them get crushed by that. They see no hope for them. Our country is tough for young people generally and it's ten times tougher for you with a disability. I think that a lot of people have lost their fighting spirit.

What maybe you need in Georgetown is a meeting place, a social meeting place where persons with disabilities hang out, share their ideas and come up with groups themselves. CBR in Georgetown would be good in one sense that you will have a structured organization. An organization and environment where persons with disabilities can meet and receive training but there's no such one that I know of in Georgetown.

I'm part of a Sports Club and through the Sports Club I meet other persons with disabilities. And that group has just started meeting at the national park where they meet and do exercises. And practice. I play wheelchair basketball with a group of young men so that gives me an opportunity to meet young people outside CBR. Through my interaction with them a lot come to the CBR office."