The Wisdom of Lifes' Experiences.

The older I get the more firmly I believe in the concept that with age, comes wisdom. Nothing is a better educator than life’s experiences.

I work in a field that constantly requires us to have one eye looking over our shoulder to make sure we are within our bounds legally. It seems as though I’m constantly hearing references to the law, whether it be 504 or the ADA, the two laws that dictate the rights of individuals with disabilities.

Section 504 was signed into law in the early 1970’s, while the ADA took effect in 1990. They are the only laws mandating the civil rights for people with disabilities and are still in their infancy stage when it comes to clarity and inclusion. It will take years of litigation—lawsuits filed by citizens, businesses and agencies—before 504 and the ADA will be fine tuned to the point where disability rights are clear and relatively unquestioned.

Having been injured in 1970, there were no civil rights laws pertaining to disability. I entered into the world of disability during a time when accessibility was granted out of the goodness of someone’s heart, not because the law directed them to do so. And even when 504 did kick in, it only covered those entities that receive Federal financial assistance. Not very comprehensive to say the least. Also, if anyone chose to ignore this law there was no real mechanism for enforcement. No formal procedure for filing a complaint to rectify any alleged illegality; thus the reasoning behind a second law, the ADA.

In today’s world most people are well-versed, or at least well aware of the laws and their interpretation of them. Unfortunately many times this awareness is simply that—awareness. It is not an understanding of the specific intentions, or interpretation of the law.

The students I work with oftentimes do not have a clear understanding of what their real rights are as individuals with disabilities. They assume, sometimes incorrectly, that whenever something is not 100% accessible to them, that laws have been broken and, as a result, threats are often made.

At times, when people threaten lawsuits over what to me are trivial issues that are well outside the boundaries of the laws, I can’t help but reflect on the fact that the accuser oftentimes never lived when there were no laws protecting their rights. They seem to carry their knowledge of the law in their hip pocket—like a gun ready to shoot—throwing it around as if it’s their ticket to solving any accessibility issue that might arise, without really thoroughly understanding scope of the law. When confronted with reality they quickly back down and sometimes walk away like a dog with its tail between its legs.

Oh yes, accurate knowledge is powerful. But the wisdom that comes with experience is far more understanding of the whole picture. Now, I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t pretend to know every tidbit of information contained in these laws, but I do have an overall understanding which is usually accurate. With that said, I am grateful for having had the experience of living with the disability without and with civil rights laws for people with disabilities.

Here I sit.

Living with a severe disability is really not that bad, that is, as long as things are going well. But this past weekend I ran into a situation that made me stare directly at the sometime cruel and harsh reality of my disability. Even though it wasn’t a life-threatening, dangerous or unhealthy situation, it brought to the forefront just how vulnerable I can be.

Saturday evening my wheelchair started acting up. Sometimes my chair would have power, other times it wouldn’t move. All I could do is pray that it would get me through the weekend so that on Monday I might be able to get it fixed, or at least looked at. What was wrong was beyond the ability for someone without specific training to fix.

Sunday morning I woke up to discover that my chair wouldn’t move; not even budge. Nothing I did would rectify the situation. So I was left to the mercy of those living with me to push me manually to wherever I needed to go within the house.

Unfortunately both of the people who live with me were busy all day Sunday. So I had to choose a spot in the house and I felt would be the best for me to sit for potentially the rest of the day. My choice was in my front office next to the phone where, if needed, I could at least access the outside world.

So there I sat, literally unable to move, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. when one of the individuals I live with returned from work. By then, considering I had just spent the last eight hours staring at the photographs that hang on the wall in front of where I was sitting, I wasn’t in the best of moods. It was a true test of my patience, to say the least.

Yes, sometimes living with the disability can be a real pain in the ass.