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Thank you all for being here. Congratulations graduates. You are not only well educated
in a traditional sense, but you have also had the unparalleled 21st century guidance
of people like professor Carolyn Baum, Professor David Gray, and many other faculty and instructors
that you have here at Washington University. I believe this is the, if not one of the,
best universities in occupational therapy programs around. Congratulations also to your
families and your friends, and a special congratulations to Washington University for having being
found and giving you this education. Every toastmaster tells me that I should begin a
speech with a joke, or a silly story. So I'm not a comedian, but here I go. Some years
ago, two friends of mine rolled onto an elevator. The elevator doors closed. One friend, who
had quadriplegia, was right up next to the buttons. He couldn't reach the buttons because
of his quadriplegia. The one next to him was a paraplegic and he had the use of his hands
and arms. He couldn't reach the buttons because his colleague was in the way. So they designed
a plan. The one who was paraplegic would crawl up over the lap of the one who was quadriplegic
and he would reach forth and push the buttons. Well, as he aimed to crawl up over his colleague's
limbs, his pants slowly went the wrong direction. Now, I believe this was in a Catholic institution.
And one of the reasons I draw that conclusion was just as they were in that predicament,
the doors opened. And there were four nuns, waiting to get on the elevator. One might
find that a little funny. Let me try another one. Another colleague with quadriplegia was
in a car accident. He had been sitting in the front seat of a car and when the accident
happened he was thrown forward into the dashboard. His shoulders and his head were just leaning
against the dashboard. He could not right himself. So police and good Samaritans start
gathering around the accident and they talk to him through the window, "Can you sit up?"
"no." "Can you move your toes and fingers?" He knows they think he might've broken his
neck, but, he'd already done that, and he knew that his neck wasn't broken. So, in order
to try to pull the situation down, he said, "You see that wheelchair in the back?" The
officer said, "Yes." "It's mine." Now I have to tell you that we ourselves got in the disability
community, and I'm not saying that I'm talking about we with disabilities, I really include
you, as if members of that community, and I know that you will become ever closer to
the lives of people with disabilities so we with disabilities certainly includes all of
the graduates here today. We with disabilities laugh ourselves silly over stories like that.
Friends and family do, too. Those stories are funny, not (***?) well aren't I? Well
for some people, for many people, they are (***?) some people who have no prior contact
with disability are horrified that we make fun of our predicaments. Others, who try to
wrap what I call the "blanket of terror" around us are just real sorry for the fact that we
are engaging in what they are sure is feigning humor. Often, older adults see disability
as the next day before death. For them, disability, there's no humor in it. And there isn't going
to be. So, why is it that we with disabilities think something is funny while the rest of
the population take it as painful? Well I thought about that question, I thought back
to my teaching phase and at that time I learned that I could not remember what I did not know.
I'm done. What I'm saying is I did not remember what I did not know. So when I was teaching
a class, I was not able to successfully lead the students in learning a lesson unless I
could get back to where I was at the beginning. And those of you who (impact academics) I
hope you remember that. But I think that that's true for the world for people with disabilities
and without disabilities. Because I did not realize that disability-ignorant mass does
not know what I know, I couldn't understand why they were not enjoying in our humor. So
my first conclusions this afternoons is that people with disabilities simply do not comprehend
what people without disabilities think. That's very important when you think about the fact
you will be dealing with newly disabled people. And newly disabled people fit into that group
of people who don't know anything about disability. So for them, they are looking at a bleak future.
There is no satisfaction. And you are going to be working beside them day by day to help
them accomplish, to accommodate to their new reality. So you are very important for that
position for remembering what you didn't know and helping the people to catch up with what
you know. My second observation today is that people without experience with disability
don't realize what they don't know and that leads them commonly to make mistakes. Just
recently, my wife and I were traveling. At the (ticket) gate, I gave the tickets to the
ticket engine, he gave them back to my wife, she gave them back to me. He couldn't comprehend
that I was in charge of handling the tickets even though I was the one who handed them
colleagues and I started, up at the disability institute, conducted some focus groups with
middle managers to talk about what their perception was on hiring people with disabilities. One
of the people on the other side of the glass (people were on the other side), one of the
people on him who was a manager piped up and she said, "I know people with quadriplegia
can work. I used to be married to a person with quadriplegia and he did good work." And
then she threw in, "but I know I can't hire blind people because we are heavily invested
in computer screens and blind people can't read screens." Well I'm sorry; all I can say
is that she is just dead wrong. Technology has made it possible for blind people to read
screens. Technology has made it possible for deaf people to talk on the telephone, even
without having to type. Technology has made it possible for people with no manual dexterity
to type at a computer and write books and write letters and so forth. And the issue,
the technology has gone on for many people. I know the importance of that technology.
But the fact is that people with disabilities can do things that others don't understand
and then your challenge and my challenge and the challenge of everybody ... with disabilities
is to try to figure out how the community that doesn't know what we can do to realize
that we can do, that we DO do live independent and constructive lives. So that's my second
point. That we are challenged, in fact that we inform people who they don't realize what
they do not know about disability. From a global point of view, one can ask, "What challenges
to people fix?" and I like to, in a simplified way, list them as five challenges: healthcare,
education, transportation, housing, and jobs. The first four of these, we've made some considerable
progress. Education is still an (ongoing) process, but I'm pleased to tell you that
recently the St. Louis public schools invested 150 million dollars in capital improvements.
And after agreement with the city, the school board's administrators have made first placing
project of each school to make certain that all primary function areas can be reached
by all people with disabilities. Transportation is making progress. Training people at airports
to successfully assist people with disabilities is a (constant) problem. But no one is saying
anymore "oh, you're disabled. You can't fly with us." People said that in the past. We've
moved beyond that. Federal housing standards are too low. We're all (harking) who can improve
the federal housing standards. But the fact of the matter is, many apartments across the
country have been built that are accessible, or at least usable, by people with disabilities,
so we've made progress there. The job situation is bleak. 80% of people who are working age
and have disabilities do not have jobs in this country today. The rate of employment
of people with disabilities today is no better than the rate of employment of people with
disabilities in 1990 when the ADA was in act. There's much to be done in solving the jobs
problem. And people with disabilities are often forced to be poor; they do not have
jobs. Often, they can't even flip a hamburger. We are all working towards enabling people
with disabilities to live independent and productive lives. Jobs means economic independence.
Now, a philosophical question: what is the sign of people with disabilities? I happen
into that question in terms of a stool, a three-legged stool. One of the legs is very
wobbly. The first is cure, the second leg is care, and the third leg is human dignity.
Well, as far as "cure" is concerned, there are cures that are happening for people with
disabilities. I have no idea whether I would ... approach me. If it does, I may or may
not be interested. But the important point with cure is if you have a disability, you
need to learn not to delay the cure. You have to live your life to the biggest extent you
possibly can. And if a cure comes along and you want to try it, that's something that
human dignity can get away from the "he can't handle the tickets and they have to give it
to the wife"- That just doesn't happen. My fifth point is to congratulate the profession (of
where it is thrown). Now, a little old story. As I contemplated what to tell the graduates
in the occupational therapy program (you're in the occupational therapy program), I remembered
what I think was my first encounter with an occupational therapist. It was in Warmsprings,
Georgia, where the post-polio facility the president Delano Roosevelt ...(his colleagues)
established. I had Polio and was treated there several times. When I was six, I was there
for surgery and recovery to be in a full body cast for six months. And as I was going through
that process, the occupational therapist came in. they taught me how to read (potholders?)
for years, when somebody said "occupational therapy" I thought "(potholders?)" then I
meant dr. griffin and I learned his aspiration to his academic work. And I met Dr. Baum.
And I realized her ...voice and she placed me on the committee in which I was a public
participant looking at the occupational program for purposes of the university. And I learned
...and your curriculum. And what I did was I came to admire this school and to admire
the occupational therapy profession. So I know one thing for sure: you don't make potholders
anymore. What you do is help people attain their independence and their participation
in society. Starting down that road, some of you, of course, are going into the clinician
situation, some of you are looking out to the world and making the world a better place.
Happily, during the years that I have been the commissioner, some of you have looked
at whether playgrounds are accessible. There's two issues. One is (having) the disability
person is there and the other is how the society responds to the person with disabilities.
So, you look at the playgrounds we want all the kids in our city, whether they have a
disability or not to be able to enjoy the playgrounds then you reported back and that's
part of the city's role in improving the playgrounds that we have. Shortly some of you who are
still in school are going to start looking at city buildings, not the least of which
check with the students after they (be certain who). So congratulations to you and your school
for making the world a better place. So what am I stressing. One: you must always remember
that people with disabilities commonly do not understand how people with disabilities
lead their lives. You must (gather) the people who think they know everything about disabilities
to a (full) understanding at the large potential of people who do have disabilities. You must
help people with disabilities secure their economic independence and that means decent
(garbs). You must always work to preserve human dignity for all people, including people
with disabilities. And while your profession has blossomed in my lifetime, you must never
forget to allow it to grow the standards and the accomplishments that it can have. Now
one last thought that many of your colleagues in the health professions forget: when needing
services, we come to you as customers, not as patients. We look to you to give us your
expert advice and training. But we will not come to be putty in your hands. We come to
seek your advice, we practice what you suggest, we are grateful for your service, but we do
not hire you to take care of us. We are in charge of our own lives. The most important
thing, I think, that you can do to lead customers, patients, to do is take charge of their own
lives. That is the central ingredient of ... securing your client's human dignity. And in my mind,
that is the essential ingredient to successful rehabilitation. Thank you all, and may you
have a wonderful, many-year career.