Hi Everybody,
A good friend of mine came up from Boston to visit for a few days. He uses a wheelchair, too. We were talking and he said something to me that was really important for me to hear. He said, “You need to realize that you matter.”
What my friend meant was that just because I have a disability doesn’t mean that I am less than anyone else and that not only do I deserve to feel good about myself but I need to believe it too!
I’ve struggled my whole life with feeling like I’ve never truly fit in anywhere. But my friend’s right: I do matter but not only that, all of us who have disabilities matter! 🙂
I have 2 questions for you:
Question 1: Have you ever felt like you didn’t fit in?
Question 2: Would you feel comfortable talking about how that made you feel, by leaving a comment below? (By talking about it, we can all learn something from each other).
One way to show the state of Maine (and ourselves) that people with disabilities like you and me, matter as much as anybody else, is to advocate for things that are really important to us, so we can do what we want, go where we want, etc. & really enjoy life.
I have 2 more questions for you:
Question 1: What issues are really important to you that I as SUFU’s Legislative Associate can not only talk about in this blog but also talk about to people, such as the Maine Legislature?
The Maine legislature are people who we vote into political office that work on making lives better for all Mainers.
Question 2: What issues really bother you as someone living with a disability that you would like to see changed?
Please leave comments below & let me know your answers to the 4 questions because knowing how you feel & what you think, really helps me do a better job! 🙂
Until Next Time,
Avery
We discussed these issues during advocacy class and this is some things we came up with;The things we would like to change to make our lives better in living with disabilities would be to offer more wheel chair accessible housing and to make all apartments capable of having people over and being able to get into bathrooms with walkers, wheelchairs and any other adaptive equipment, there is not a lot of lighting in the complex on stairs/walkways after dark, apartments are to close if any type of fire or chemical spill occurred, would catch onto the rest of apartments, not alot of privacy between walls of apartments, bathrooms being locked to public access due to being vandalized.
Up in the northern areas we do not have any public transportation other than the Lynx, but no public transportation after that agency hour closes and it limits our means of getting to local events/activities for weekends and later during the evening. We would need more wheelchair accessible vehicles also. Prices of taxi’s are really expensive once you go out of town.