Image Description; Digital art of a sideview of an anime-inspired female. She has dark waving hair and wearing black clothes. She is sitting cross-legged on the floor, typing on a laptop computer. Her expression is of joy and peace. The background is pink with swirls and hearts. The words “You are not alone” are written on the background.
Quote from the artist, “In my art, I tend to focus on one subject to emphasize the individual experience and how complex every single person is. For this artwork, I wanted to show the importance of an online community and how even if you feel alone physically, there are always other people out there, whether online or in-person.”
ABOUT THE ARTIST: Melody Miller
Melody Miller (she/they) is an autistic queer person who has been familiar with disabilities all their life through friends, family, and their own personal experiences. Their favorite way to express the vibrancy of their inner world is through their art, where they tend to focus on one subject to emphasize the individual experience and how complex every single person is.
When I was in fifth grade my parents enrolled me in a Karate school so that I could learn how to defend myself. I was a small kid with a quick temper who kept getting into fights he couldn’t finish. For seven years of my youth, I spent most afternoons reciting a creed to rely on strength of the body, knowledge of the mind, and honesty of the heart to “win the battle within myself” and defend others, then developed physical and mental skills that built on those concepts. I achieved the rank of first-degree black-belt before I turned sixteen.
While I did learn to defend myself, what I really learned was how not to get into fights. My life transitioned from youth into adulthood as I moved away from home for education and career. A decade later, my karate belts were nice memorabilia of my youth to decorate my walls. It was always something I thought I would get back to when I found the time.
During my commute home from work, almost eighteen years ago, I was trapped in a burning Wrangler after a car accident. Six weeks later I awoke to learn that both of my legs had been amputated above each knee.
I remember laying in the burn unit, thinking about my youth and the effort I had put in to learning Shorei-Goju Ryu. Something valuable that I had let slip away as my career took prominence in my life but had always intended to practice again. This was now gone…taken with my legs, and the effort to learn Karate in my youth now felt wasted.
As I learned to walk on prostheses, my Physical Therapist was impressed by my balance and body awareness. She attributed this to my martial arts background. It was a bittersweet benefit left over from my training in my youth, but it relieved a little of the loss.
Adapting to life as a Person with Disabilities is hard…it’s the hardest thing that I have ever had to do. Beyond the physical actions of fighting, a lot of what I learned from Karate was about self-discipline, motivation, determination, and resiliency which helped me adjust to living life using a wheelchair and prosthetics with crutches. I was using what I had learned to reach a black-belt rank in Shorei-Goju Ryu, every day now, to deal with the emotional and physical trauma of life with a disability.
These skills, learned in my youth, helped me to access the supports needed to define and achieve an independent lifestyle as a Person with a Disability. The time spent working with a Sensei (Teacher) and other students had taught me to be open to peer support. The self-discipline, determination, and confidence developed to earn my black-belt now supported the ability to advocate for myself and others; in efforts to speak up for my own rights, and to raise Disability Inclusion and Equity through increased Accessibility at a social level, which leads to a Diverse sense of Belonging. Resiliency fed a belief that I could live an independent lifestyle and led me to define what that meant and how that would look, and to ask for the help needed to make modifications and access the resources (from disability support organizations to crowdfunding) for the assistive technology, training, and adaptations to support my vision of independence.
Many aspects of the Martial Arts have benefits for People with Disabilities. Reframing your disabilities as part of your healthy state, not something working against it, Karate provides accessible and adaptable exercise that helps develop confidence, endurance, and self-awareness. Most importantly, by practicing and adapting Shorei-Goju Ryu, I have redefined my perceptions of a healthy body, mind, and spirit in a way that is inclusive of my disabilities, and I have an adaptive avenue to further develop those aspects of life.
Karate can be adapted for any person with any disability, customized to meet their goals, and modified as the individual’s skills progress. Learning Martial Arts can help you face life with adaptability and resiliency, both of which are vital aspects of the disability experience. During the COVID lockdowns, I virtually assisted a young woman with Down Syndrome doing her senior project on Martial Arts. I demonstrated strikes (punches & blocks) from a wheelchair in Indiana, and she demonstrated kicks, stances, and movement from a classroom in Georgia. I couldn’t remember any of the Katas (choreographed forms for practice and meditation), but I could help her put the basics together. When we finished, I found myself asking the question “how do I really modify this for my 47-year-old bi-lateral above knee amputee body?”
(Image Descriptions: The image on the left shows Jeremy Warriner a white man in his mid-forties with reddish-brown hair and a trimmed mustache and goatee, in a grassy yard under the shade of trees on a sunny day with a cloudy blue sky. He is centered in the picture standing on his left prosthetic leg, with two forearm crutches planted on the ground in front of him at opposite angles, he is leaning forward and to his left side as he kicks to the right side with his right prosthetic leg. He is wearing a white gi top (karate tunic), a long fabric black belt knotted at the waist, and black shorts. His prosthetic knees and legs are a shiny silver aluminum color with ball shaped “ankles” above hiking boots on his prosthetic feet. There is a rope hammock to his left and tall trees in front of a blue house with white windows & doors in the background.
The image on the right shows Jeremy Warriner sitting in his purple rigid frame wheelchair without his prosthetic legs, on a wooden deck outside of a blue house with green trim, white windows & French doors on his right. Jeremy is wearing a black gi (karate uniform) with a long fabric black belt knotted at his waist. The two ends of the belt dangle between his thighs and there is a red stripe near the right tip of the belt indicating the first black-belt rank. He is facing forward and centered in the bottom half of the picture, with his left hand resting on the armrest above the left wheel, knuckles against his left flank, elbow bent out to his left side. His right arm is relaxed with his right hand resting on the distal end of his residual right leg. The empty lower legs of his black pants are folded underneath him, exposing the empty footrest, Velcro straps, a pocket, a small circular container, and a cupholder attached to his seat and frame. There is a tablet with a red keyboard and a legal note pad with pen on a small glass table to his left, with a power strip on the deck in front of the table. Behind him, a ramp with a railing extends down to a stone path with grass and trees in the background. Jeremy is smiling at the camera, his long reddish-brown hair falls loose behind his shoulders, and his mustache and goatee are trimmed short. Sunlight filters through the leaves of a tree above him, casting a light shade on the deck).
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Jeremy Warriner
Whether walking on next-generation prosthetic legs or utilizing a wheelchair, Jeremy is an active member of his community, founder of Walking Spirit & Spirit Therapies, LLC, charter member of the international Rotary Club for World Disability Advocates, and a devoted husband & stepfather. His passion is enhancing our communities through providing assessments, consulting, training and support on Accessible Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging from a Disability Lens. Jeremy’s current projects include adapting Karate to his disability, co-hosting the international podcast “World Disability Matters”, facilitating the virtual Disabilities & Conditions of Aging Network in central Indiana, and writing a book about his experiences adapting to life as a bilateral above knee amputee and burn survivor. He can be reached through his website at https://www.walkingspirit.org or by email at jeremy@walkingspirit.org.
Many people with physical and learning disabilities desire to work, but unfortunately, they remain unemployed. Many individuals with disabilities must obtain education for an employer even to consider them for employment. Furthermore, some employers have preconceived ideas about people with disabilities, such as being a liability to the organization and lacking skills or the ability to complete tasks. Therefore, the potential employer does not consider them in the hiring process or does not hire them.
At a young age, I knew I wanted a fulfilling career and most likely needed an education, so this was the path I embarked on. Vocational Rehabilitation provided financial assistance for my education, which led to me earning my business administration degree from Ambassador University, Big Sandy, Texas, in 1997. Despite having a college degree, I was unsuccessful in finding work independently. Less than a year after I finished college, I began to work in the family business as an office assistant. This entry level position was an important stepping stone in my career because it gave me some experience to make note of on my resume. Someone gave me an opportunity for some experience!
My journey with employment has been like many others with disabilities. By being born with cerebral palsy and a learning disability, my odds for gainful employment were against me. However, I learned from my experiences that having disabilities does not define my ability to have a successful career, even though some employers may have believed so.
That first job opportunity, along with the assistance of Vocational Rehabilitation and an Employment Consultant (EC) through Easterseals Crossroads, led me into other professional positions. In 2007, my EC helped me obtain a position at a nonprofit disability service in an independent living center in Indianapolis, Indiana. I was thankful I was hired despite needing more specific experience for the position. Someone else gave me an opportunity!
While working at the independent living center, I learned about various disabilities and others’ experiences. I also learned about the diversity and uniqueness of individuals who have been diagnosed with the same disabilities, including one of the founders of the organization, who has cerebral palsy.
A prevalent theme in my work with people with disabilities is that they want opportunities to obtain independence or autonomy, just as I did. My life experiences and challenges due to having disabilities have allowed me to provide mentoring and peer support to others with disabilities. More specifically, it has allowed me to provide help in gaining access to necessary resources and essential life skills that promote empowerment to achieve their individual goals, whatever those may be. For example, a few people I assisted transitioned from a nursing home to independent living. In addition, I supported some individuals to obtain home modifications, employment, housing, food, clothing, benefits, skills to budget finances, and many other individual goals.
Throughout my career, I have supported people at the individual level and provided support at the community level. For example, I started disability support groups, provided disability awareness and resources to the public, and led the Back Home Alliancefor Indianapolis project that assisted people with disabilities in making changes in housing that were affordable, accessible, and integrated.
Working for an independent living center allowed me to help others and helped me. Through my work there, I came to believe that all things are possible in living the life I desire, even with a disability. I bought a home in 2009 and decided to explore another goal: to determine if I could successfully earn my real estate license. In 2013, I took a real estate course. I knew earning the license would be challenging because of my learning disability. Not to be discouraged, I read the real estate book three times, studied other students’ notes, and practiced with flash cards. My efforts paid off because I passed the Indiana state exam on the first try. I cried tears of joy when I received the passing grade and realized I am more intelligent than I have given myself credit for. Throughout my life, so many people have believed I am limited in my capabilities because of my cerebral palsy and learning disability. This time, I gave myself this opportunity!
In 2014, I left the independent living center and worked full-time in real estate with other family members. As a broker realtor, I learned how to maintain potential home buyers by building relationships with them, which led to earning their trust to guide them in purchasing a home. The most fulfilling job as a broker realtor was seeing the buyer at the closing table and knowing they finally owned their house. We gave each other an opportunity!
In my career journey, I lost jobs along the way. Sometimes, I lost a job because physical lifting was required, and I could not perform the task, or the job required me to work fast, which my motor skills would not allow me to do. I asked for job accommodations, but none were ever available. All these experiences with different positions and careers led me to miss working in the nonprofit world and working with people with disabilities. I relate to individuals with disabilities because I understand their hardships. It was time for me to provide opportunities!
I knew I needed to give back. So, I applied for a position at Easterseals Crossroads, the organization that helped me find a job years ago. In January 2016, I was hired as a retention specialist, which has led to my becoming the lead retention specialist. My responsibilities have included supporting individuals with disabilities to maintain employment, which meant that I needed to learn the perspective of the employer and the employee. I have educated employers about disability awareness, accommodations, and how to work together. I also taught the consumer (employee) how to follow the rules and procedures of the company or agency. By working with the employer and employees, I have helped many individuals with disabilities keep their jobs. The employer and employee are giving each other opportunities!
Not only have I given back through my career at Easterseals Crossroads, but also through community organizations and activities. For example, I have gained appointments on the Council and Leadership Committee for the Governor’s Council for People with Disabilities for the State of Indiana. I have also participated in disability awareness campaigns on social media, local media, articles, and a master’s program for counselor education. In recognition of my efforts and work for the disability community, I received the Indiana state and national level Lois Curtis Award from the Association of People Supporting Employment First (APSE)
From this article, I hope employers have noted reasons to consider hiring individuals with disabilities. Furthermore, it is crucial to be cautious of preconceived ideas and overgeneralizations from precluding individuals with disabilities from hiring considerations. As indicated in my personal life experiences and the common theme found in my career, when provided an opportunity, individuals with disabilities are not only willing and capable of fulfilling the responsibilities and obligations of job requirements but also assets rather than liabilities.
“Everyone has something to contribute to this world. It’s just a matter of being given that opportunity to do so.” — Grace Hightower
Image Description: Brandy with blonde, medium length hair. She is smiling, wearig a red blouse. She is standing in front of a grey boundground with her hands in her back pockets.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Brandy
Brandy Dickerson has been working in the disability community since 2007. She is presently the Lead Retention Specialist at Easterseals Crossroads in Indianapolis. She specializes in helping people with disabilities and acts maintain employment, using her personal experience with cerebral palsy. Additionally, she serves on the Indiana Governors Council for People with Disabilities and acts as council secretary.
Image Description: A disabled trans male being told He’s enough and the person saying that is making him feel important. Surrounded by the disabilities he has, the pain of having them are fading farther away once he hears those words of encouragement.
Living with disabilities is a unique journey that shapes one’s perspective and invites a myriad of experiences. Today, I tell you my life story of navigating through the complexities of autism, epilepsy, and ADHD. It was a long process, and I surely struggled, but it became harder and the road to where I am today was, indeed, bumpy.
• Discovering Differences
From an early age, I began to notice my innate differences from my peers. My initial encounters with autism manifested in distinct communication and interaction patterns. Socializing became an intricate dance that required both patience and understanding from those around me. Despite these challenges, I found solace in my burgeoning creativity and unique perspectives on the world.
• Epilepsy’s Unpredicted Twists
As life unfolded, epilepsy unexpectedly entered the stage, adding another layer to my journey. Seizures brought forth uncertainty and fear, each episode altering their path momentarily. However, with resilience and support, I discovered ways to manage my condition, embracing life’s unpredictability with open arms. Medication played a huge part, but overcoming my fear helped.
• The Dual Nature of ADHD
ADHD joined the ensemble, introducing a whirlwind of hyperactivity, impulsiveness, and difficulty concentrating. It challenged my ability to stay on task, especially in school, and sometimes made me feel restless in an environment designed for neurotypical individuals. Nevertheless, their ADHD became a catalyst for innovation, enabling me to approach my problems from unique angles and harness my boundless energy for creative pursuits.
•The Obstacles
Life was far from smooth sailing, as societal stigmas and misconceptions surrounding disabilities often stood in the way of my progress. I faced educational barriers and workplace discrimination various points in their life. However, with determination, advocacy, and the invaluable support of friends, family, and mentors (staff in my previous and current homing situations), I overcame these obstacles.
• Finding a Voice
In my quest for self-acceptance and resilience, I discovered an artistic outlet that allowed me to share their experiences. With writing, Drawing, or any creative medium, I was able to express my unique perspective on the world, enlightening society on the true nature of disabilities and eroding the boundaries between neurodiversity and the mainstream.
• Embracing Neurodiversity
The journey towards self-acceptance led me to embrace the concept of neurodiversity. I became passionate advocates, fostering inclusivity and understanding within their communities. My experiences with epilepsy, autism, and ADHD gave me invaluable insights into the diverse tapestry of human existence and the beauty that lies within the differences we all possess.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Ash Ward
I am Ash Ward. My pronouns are He/they and I am 23 years old. I enjoy drawing and listening to music. I like helping others and volunteering at animal shelters!
Image Description: Trans man with pink fluffy hair, hazel eyes and an anime shirt on Trans man with pink fluffy hair, hazel eyes and an anime shirt on
