Strangely and funny enough, many
people blame others for their misfortunes rather than checking what got them
there in the first place. Sometimes ago while going to town, I instinctively decided
to count the number of beggars with one disability or another that I come
across on the street. This was going on well till a shocking experience I had
with one of the beggars. I immediately lost track of the counting as I tried to
take in the reality of what unfolded before me, then it dawned on me that even
in the disabled people’s world, there are classes. While you have those who are
genuinely disabled either partially or fully, there are equally those who are
actually faking it.
The whole idea I had for that morning
changed when a young man I presumed should be in his 20s came to the door on my
side of the car I was in, begging alms. He frantically held on to a stick as
support while limping about and looked as though blind with a half-closed eyes
and mouth twisted to one side so he could sound inaudible. Whilst I was anticipating
the traffic light to go green, he stood by my door with his arms stretched and
tried to utter some words out of his twisted mouth. His persistence at getting
something out of me got me unnerved that I rolled my glass up. I was so shocked
when this same young man started yelling and raining insults on me. He actually
forgot he was ‘limping’ and presumably ‘blind’ and, oh my, had a ‘twisted mouth’
and walked away like a normal able-bodied individual that he really is.
A saying goes that ‘the only
disability of a man is his bad attitude.’ I was left astounded but this boy’s
attitude got me into wondering and I couldn’t resist a laugh. Then I wasn’t much
surprised why all he could do with his life is beg. He is suffering from a bad
attitude, which would not even allow for him fake his disability perfectly.
You might not be physically disabled
to go beg on the street, but your negative attitude to life is a disability in
itself. It must be emphasized that no matter the circumstances surrounding who
or what we are in life we don’t have any excuse for not being the best even
when we are truly physically disabled. People will always treat you the way you
treat yourself.
Life in itself is filled with reasons
and excuses to readily give up and throw in the towel; they may be health,
work, and family, emotional or psychologically related. What is your excuse?
I looked up some fellows who though suffered
some form of disability, didn’t pay attention to their misfortunes but were
rather determined to make their lives count.
- Ludwig Van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Disability: Deaf
Beethoven is one of the greatest
composers in history. His first public performance as a pianist was only at the
age 8 years old. In the year 1796 Beethoven began losing his hearing. In spite
of his illness he immersed himself in his work and created some of the greatest
works of music. He studied in Vienna under the guidance of Mozart. By his
mid-twenties he had earned a name for himself as a great pianist known for
unpredictable and brilliant creativeness. Beethoven’s finest works are also the
finest works of their kind in music history: the 9th Symphony, the 5th Piano
Concerto, the Violin Concerto, the Late Quartets, and his Missa Solemnis. And
he achieved all this despite being completely deaf for the last 25 years or so
of his life.
- Jean-Dominique Bauby
(April 23 1952 – March 9, 1997)
Disability: Locked-in Syndrome
Jean-Do was a well-known French
journalist, author and editor of the French fashion magazine ELLE. In 1995 he
suffered a massive heart attack causing him to go into a coma for 20 days.
After coming out of the coma he found himself with a very rare neurological
disorder called Locked-in syndrome, in which the mental state is perfectly
normal and stable but the body is paralyzed from Head to Toe. In the case of
Jean-Do he was able to move only his left eyelid. Despite his condition, he
wrote the book ‘The Diving Bell and the Butterfly’ by blinking when the correct
letter was reached by a person who slowly recited the alphabet over and over
again. Bauby had to compose and edit the book entirely in his head, and convey
it one letter at a time. To make dictation more efficient, Bauby’s
interlocutor, Claude Mendibil, read from a special alphabet, which consisted of
the letters ordered in accordance with their frequency in the French language.
The book was published in France on 7 March 1997. Bauby died just two days
after the publication of his book.
- Hellen Keller (June 27, 1880 –
June 1, 1968)
Disability: Blind and Deaf
Helen Adams Keller was an American author,
political activist and lecturer. She was the first deaf and blind person to
earn a Bachelor of Arts degree. The story of how Keller’s teacher, Annie
Sullivan, broke through the isolation imposed by a near complete lack of
language, allowing the girl to blossom as she learned to communicate, has
become known worldwide through the dramatic depictions of the play and film The
Miracle Worker. Sullivan taught Helen to communicate by spelling words into her
hand, beginning with d-o-l-l for the doll that she had brought her as a
present. A prolific author, Keller was well traveled and was outspoken in her
opposition to war. She campaigned for women’s suffrage, workers’ rights, and
socialism, as well as many other progressive causes. In 1920, she helped to
found the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Keller and Sullivan traveled
to over 39 countries, making several trips to Japan and becoming a favorite of
the Japanese people. Keller met every US President from Grover Cleveland to
Lyndon B. Johnson and was friends with many famous figures, including Alexander
Graham Bell, Charlie Chaplin, and Mark Twain.
4. Marla Runyan (January 4, 1969- )
Disability: Blind
At the age of nine, Runyan developed Stargardt’s
Disease, which is a form of macular degeneration that left her legally blind.
Marla Runyan is a three time national champion in the women’s 5000 meters. She
won four gold medals in the 1992 summer Paralympics. In the 1996 Paralympics
she won silver in the shot put and gold in the Pentathlon. In 2000 she became
the first legally blind paralympian to compete in the Olympic Games in Sydney,
Australia. She holds various American records such as 20,000 Road (2003),
All-female Marathon (2002), and 500m (2001), Heptathlon (1996). In 2001, she
co-wrote and published her autobiography ‘No Finish Line: My Life As I See It’.
- Sudha Chandran (1964)
Disability: Amputee
Sudha Chandran was born to family in Chennai, South
India. She completed her Masters in Economics from Mumbai. On one of her return
trips from Mumbai to Chennai she met with an accident resulting in the
amputation of her right leg. She was given an artificial leg and despite this
terrible disability, she became one of the most accomplished and acclaimed
dancers of the Indian Subcontinent. She has received and still receives
invitations to perform all over the world. She has been honored with numerous
awards and has performed all over the world. She appears often on Hindi
television and in films.
I believe after reading this, you
should be having a second thought about your life if you have given up. Click
to watch video;
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