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i'm john camp president and c_e_o_ abilities
and The Henry Viscardi School in Albertson, NY
I was born in 1949 without arms and legs off essentially at
the elbows and knees
I was fitted for prostheses when I was two for legs and three for arms
and I was in kindergarten by the time I was four and a half years old in a regular
public school in Bismarck, North Dakota
when I was in high school in Frankfort Kentucky
a private catholic school - very small
thirty kids in each grade
for the four years of school
I got very involved in the sports program as well as academics
I did well academically
but I was really loving sports as I always did all my life as a student
manager and that was always a lot of fun to be able to think about wearing my letter
jacket with a lot of pride and thinking that girls really thought that was cool
it was always difficult and challenging to date
to find girls thought I was okay with my prostheses
but I managed to work it all out and everything
I had a great at great wonderful life in high school
I've had a good and
wonderful experience of being in the 1960 National Easter Seal
poster child Ð it was a lot of fun I got to travel all over the
United States, went to Australia got a college scholarship
I was ten-years-old giving speeches
an incredible experience
but it was also a time when
the public viewed people with disabilities as objects of charity and sometimes pity
there was no accessible technology, there was no internet
there were no civil rights for people with disabilities there were no curb cuts
life was what people handed us and what we made
of what we have
and then today and
fast forward to
the 2010Õs and 2020Õs we can start thinking about
how different life is in such a short period of time
in fifty to sixty years
we have the internet, we have accessible technologies
that allow us to explore the world
and many worlds just from our desktops and our laptops from our smartphones if we want
I wear artificial arms and legs
and I kind of
kid myself and
joke about it but I say
my legs are very modern and my arms are a little old school
my legs are very modern in terms of being
titanium steel
and carbon fiber products make them very lightweight
and very durable
my arms and clamps are
sort of old school
built fifty, sixty, seventy years ago
but they're very functional
and the irony is that I'll be sitting on an airplane
and somebody sitting next to me says Ôyou know they make hands nowÉÕ
I laugh to myself and I say
well yes
I do know that they make hands
and the hands are getting more
unbelievably functional today
but they're still not as functional as my clamps are
and that's why I'm not ready to make the jump
2012
is merely another launching pad
for the disability movement. I watched
the state of the union address I watch our congress
I watch our corporate leaders
I wonder - where are our people with disabilities in that mix?
when will there be another
president with a disability
who can be openly
out and proud about his or her disability
how about members of congress
Jim Langevin
a fantastic representative a guy with quadriplegia
who I know as a personal friend
and I admire so greatly for his service he provides our country
why aren't there more people with disabilities in elected offices
at the federal level at the state level at the local level
how about corporations
are we running into any
a glass ceiling of sorts
on our part are we unable to move
up into the top
positions maybe people with disabilities exist but are afraid to be
outed
because it might appear to be a weakness
maybe some of these senior executives have heart conditions
and mental illness of some kind
and they're afraid to disclose it
or maybe they're not there at all
I think full participation is where we start inn 2012
we have garnered our civil rights
now it's time to use them
to grow and develop and participate and lead wherever possible and I hope thatÕs what we do in the future