Curious About What to Say to a Person with a Disability? Here Are 5 Things to Say And 5 Things Not to Say

How do you feel when you spot a person with a disability? If you’re like most, you probably feel a complex rush of emotions. Out of compassion, you want to understand the person’s life and what it’s like to live without sight, hearing or full mobility. But out of ignorance or even fear, you rarely broach the awkward silence. To open the conversation with the 56.7 million Americans living with a disability, pull up a chair, look the person in the eye and read on to find out what the experts recommend saying and what’s better left unspoken.

What to Say

1. “Hey, did you see that movie?”

Some people avoid engaging in conversation with a person with a disability because they worry there’s just too many pitfalls. What if I accidentally ask a blind person if they see what I mean? What if I ask someone hard of hearing if they heard the latest news? While people who use one of these colloquialisms likely kick themselves as soon as the words leave their mouth, the person with a disability might not even notice. “Typically, an individual who is comfortable with his or her own disability is not offended by such phrases. I often say them myself, as it is just part of our vernacular,” says Anthony Stephens, director of advocacy and governmental affairs for the American Council of the Blind. Of course, there are exceptions, such as someone who has recently lost her sight or hearing might be sensitive. But above all, people with disabilities want to be treated like anyone else. Relax when you’re speaking, and generally don’t worry about this metaphorical language.

2. “Can I ask you what medical condition you have?”

A person’s disability is caused by a medical condition. That’s a reality most won’t shy away from and one that can guide your interaction. (Upon seeing someone in a wheelchair, many people wrongly assume that the person is totally incapacitated, and they start speaking slower or louder — despite a lack of evidence that the person’s hard of hearing or has cognitive disabilities.) After you’ve spoken about the medical condition, don’t ask for more information about daily challenges. Why? Not only could it seem like you’re prying, but also because many in the community believe that disabilities stem from society’s inability to adapt, rather than from any physical limitation. “It’s not that I can’t open the door,” says Ian Watlington, an advocacy specialist at the National Disability Rights Network who has cerebral palsy, “it’s that the door is too heavy.” Don’t press further, unless you know the person well or he volunteers information, or otherwise you’ll reduce his life to “a set of symptoms,” Watlington adds.

3. “Would it be helpful if I carried this over for you?”

Grabbing a blind person’s arm may throw them off balance. Lifting someone’s wheelchair by the handles could tip them onto the floor. It may be hard to resist when it looks like a person with a disability is struggling, but jumping into someone’s personal space is a big no-no. They already developed a different — but no less effective — way of navigating the world. Always ask if your help is needed first, and don’t take offense if someone declines it. “We know when to ask for help. Just wait for us to speak up,” suggests Tiffiny Carlson, a Minnesota blogger whose spinal cord was injured in a driving accident as a teen. “How would you like it if someone barrel-rolled themselves into your personal space? You wouldn’t. The same goes for us.”

4. “Our building is accessible to all.”

At its most fundamental level, having a disability can make it physically challenging to get around. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), a massive civil rights bill passed in 1990, prohibits discrimination against those with disabilities in employment, access to public services, telecommunications and housing and other accommodations. The bill was the culmination of a decades-long campaign, which sought to show that people with disabilities could live independently as part of a community. “Like the African-Americans who sat in at segregated lunch counters and refused to move to the back of the bus, people with disabilities sat in federal buildings, obstructed the movement of inaccessible buses, and marched through the streets to protest injustice,” Arlene Mayerson, directing attorney of the Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund, writes in a history of the movement. ADA compliance is now widespread, but it’s always reassuring for a person with disabilities to feel welcomed (keep ramps unobstructed, trash bins out of aisles and display boards away from entrances), rather than being seen as a burden.

5. “You’re hired!”

While the ADA is responsible for revamped layouts of many workspaces, it hasn’t been nearly as effective at adding diversity to employment rosters. According to the 2010 Census, only 41 percent of working-age Americans with disabilities were employed, compared with 79 percent with no disability. Thanks to today’s technology, people with disabilities are usually able to work as effectively, if not more so, than any other applicant. Take Jerry Berrier, a blind person who was once ashamed that he couldn’t proofread his own memos at work and felt he wasn’t an asset. Once speech-to-text technology came online around 1985, his productivity soared. “People tend to expect very little of someone with disabilities. They just can’t imagine themselves being able to do what I’ve done, because they think of what would happen if they went blind right now. I’ve had 60 years of experience and a chance to get a lot of practice,” Berrier, who works at Perkins School for the Blind, says. “But I would like for people to be willing to [let me] do things if I feel like I can do them.” By offering employment opportunities, everyone benefits.

What (Definitely) Not to Say

1. “I’ll pray for you to be healed.”

Pity is one of the most offensive responses to a person’s disability. It’s an ineluctable reality for those who have them, and a significant number report they wouldn’t reverse their condition, even if they had the chance. While prayers may come from a genuine place, most people who are disabled would probably prefer if you send your good intentions to your congressman to fight for independent living facilities, safeguards for health coverage and enforcement of the ADA’s ban on employment discrimination.

Many people with disabilities also consider it equally patronizing to heap praise on their “inspirational” life. For those of us growing up in the Oprah generation, we don’t see the harm in a compliment. But as someone with a disability, Carlson explains, “We are just trying to live our lives like everyone else. Your comment will have the negative effect, reminding us how different people still think we are.”

2. “We’ve got two wheelchairs coming through.”

No one wants their personhood reduced to their equipment. Along with that, there’s plenty of other outdated, dehumanizing language to avoid: cripple, retard, victim, dumb or mute, insane, deformed, lame, invalid. Handicapped, in vogue for two decades after the 1970s, is also out of fashion as people came to prefer “disabilities,” a term that connoted a medical reality but didn’t imply a perpetual disadvantage in society, journalist Jack A. Nelson writes in “The Disabled, the Media, and the Information Age.” Some new terms like “differently abled” or “physically challenged” are also viewed as over-the-top, so hypersensitive as to be insensitive. “If you sprain your ankle, you’re physically challenged. That’s not the same as being culturally and physically defined as disabled,” says Watlington.
What’s considered best is to recognize a person’s humanity first, then their disability. Say a “person with epilepsy,” for example, rather than an “epileptic.” “To say that someone is ‘disabled’ implies that she or he is broken or flawed,” says Stephens. Using person-first language “attributes it more as a modifier and not an inherent part of their being,” Stephens adds. Of course, if you’re unsure which term a person prefers, asking will always get you the right answer.

3. “Were you born with that affliction?”

Besides often mistaking a disability for the whole person, people generally associate disabilities with suffering and pain. They can’t imagine a disabled person being happy and see her as a victim. “I have had perfect strangers come up to me and instead of greeting me or saying hello, they say, ‘What’s wrong? What happened?’” Tim Vaughn, marketing director for Eastman Kodak, tells DiversityInc. Like the rest of us, people with disabilities are looking for fulfillment in their lives — despite the extra hurdles they need to overcome. That’s not to say they don’t miss abilities, even ones they never had. “Anytime I hear someone talking about what’s outside the window, I lament that I can’t see,” Berrier says. But he finds other ways to bring himself joy like studying bird sounds, a beauty that surrounds all of us but that is ignored by most.

4. “You wouldn’t be able to handle children.”

One of the biggest upcoming battles disability advocates see on the horizon is protecting family life. Questions linger about whether a person with disabilities would be fit to take care of a child or might even pass on a hereditary condition to their child. But behind this argument lurks the assumption that people with disabilities are incapable, an argument used to justify the government’s sterilization of 60,000 Americans with disabilities by 1960. Just because someone may have physical challenges, however, does not mean she’d be a bad parent. “Any time we start making assumptions about what people can and cannot do, we’re getting into scary territory,” Watlington says.

5. “But how do you go to the bathroom?”

While it might be okay to inquire about someone’s medical condition, asking a stranger about the intimate details of their lives risks turning him or her into a sideshow curiosity. There is obviously a need to educate people about accessibility issues, but there’s also a limit to what needs to be discussed. You wouldn’t question anyone else about her restroom habits, and there’s no reason to think that a person’s disability makes it acceptable to ask.
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Minnesota’s Bold Move to Hire More Employees with Disabilities

A snapshot of disability in America:
There’s an estimated 56.7 million disabled citizens.
The national unemployment rate for people with disabilities is more than twice the national average, sitting at 13.3 percent.
Which is why Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton is planning to reform hiring practices with a new executive order that mandates state agencies to begin employing more people with disabilities. Dayton is aiming to raise the percentage of government employees with disabilities from 3.2 percent in 2013 to 7 percent by 2018, the Star Tribune reports.
Dayton has more recently come under fire from disability advocate groups criticizing stalled reforms in helping Minnesota’s disabled population, which includes one in five residents. Such disabilities range in physical and mental issues that can hinder an individual’s ability to perform a major activity.
“It’s a slam dunk, politically,” said Galen Smith, co-facilitator of the Minneapolis chapter of ADAPT, a disability advocate group. “This shows leadership while acknowledging the problem.”
Minnesota has fallen behind neighboring states like Iowa (4.4 percent) and  Wisconsin (5.8 percent) when it comes to disability hires. But under Dayton’s new order, more hiring managers will be required to take training on recruitment and hiring of disabled people while also reporting progress every quarter.
Dayton is not the first leader to address the growing problem. Although the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) prohibits discrimination against anyone with disability, some state agencies stopped tracking recruitment of disability hires, diminishing a law that once was a hiring focus.

“The attitude became, ‘Well, we have the ADA so we don’t have to worry anymore,’ ” said Roberta Opheim, Minnesota’s ombudsman for mental health and developmental disabilities. “That doesn’t affect my department or my division. There just wasn’t a lot of emphasis on inclusive employment.”

But since 2010, President Barack Obama has implored the federal government to hire 100,000 people with disabilities by 2015, and governors in California, Oregon, Florida, Ohio and Delaware have signed similar executive orders as Minnesota’s.
This isn’t Dayton’s first effort to increase services for the state’s disabled population, either. Last year, the governor announced the “Olmstead Plan,” a multi-year outline to expand Minnesota’s services for people living with disabilities or mental illness. But advocates argue the state is moving too slowly to implement new practices, which is why Dayton’s recent order signals a shift toward change.
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This Mom Aims to Fix a Big Problem with Back-to-School Advertisements

As they say in the advertising world, “Image is everything.” If that’s the case, where does that leave the disabled?
Katie Driscoll, an Illinois mom and photographer, noticed something missing from back-to-school ads. Even though children of different races and gender were featured, there were never any children who look like her four-year-old daughter, Grace, who has Down syndrome.
That’s when Driscoll, the owner of 5 Boys + 1 Girl = 6 Photography, decided to start her own photo project to feature kids of all stripes, including those who are disabled.
As Driscoll told Buzzfeed, “How can we expect children to be accepting of children who are different if they are virtually [nonexistent] in the general media and advertising?”
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“I put a casting call out and got together a group of children that I thought would represent all children returning to school,” Driscoll told ABC News. “Obviously, you can’t include every diagnosis but I wanted people to see differences because it’s important.”
She held a photoshoot in a Chicago bookstore, and said her models really enjoyed interacting with each other. You can check out their fun photo session in the video below.
Driscoll has also started the organization Changing the Face of Beauty, which encourages advertisers to feature those with disabilities in promotions. Based upon the number of people talking about her bookstore photo shoot, we fully expect Driscoll will find success in this venture as well.
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When Communication Barriers Prevented Coworkers from Talking, Goodwill Provided Language Lessons for All

Back in 2006, when Rafael Toquinto, Jr. started working at a warehouse in Denver where Goodwill Industries sorts unsold clothing and household goods for recycling, his coworkers wouldn’t even say hello to him.
The snub wasn’t on purpose. His fellow employees simply didn’t know how to greet him in a way he’d understand.
Why? Because Toquinto, Jr. is deaf.
But now, he and the 16 other deaf Goodwill employees can enjoy some water cooler chatter with their coworkers — thanks to a free class the nonprofit is offering all employees.
Nicki Cantin, a recycling operations assistant who oversees the warehouse where Toquinto works as a certified forklift driver, said that managers were worried that if there was an emergency, they wouldn’t be able to alert deaf employees about it. “We’re supposed to be working as a team, but we couldn’t even talk to each other,” Cantin told Thad Moore of the Denver Post.
For the past two months, warehouse workers have met twice a week for an American Sign Language class taught by Cathy Noble-Hornsby, deaf services program manager for Goodwill Industries of Denver. Toquinto and other hearing-impaired employees work together with their coworkers, helping to teach them sign language and correcting their hand positions. They also demonstrate a sign when a coworkers finger spells what they want to say.
“We’re not outsiders anymore,” Toquinto told Moore.
Toquinto even makes sure his coworkers practice. When they interact with him on the job and lapse into writing what they want to say to him on paper, “I’ll go, ‘OK, enough writing now,'” Toquinto said. “Now come into my world.”
Toquinto trained a new deaf coworker, Josue Candelaria-Facio, on the ins and outs of the warehouse, such as where everything goes — something that Toquinto struggled to learn in the days before all the coworkers could communicate. “I really feel kind of proud that they’re willing to learn my language,” Candelaria-Facio told Moore. “It’s really nice — even on that basic level — to be able to communicate.”
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These Women Invented a Toy That Truly Includes Every Child

Toys are not created equal.
Just look down any aisle at your local Toys “R” Us. From Hot Rods to Barbie dolls, finding a toy that’s appropriate for the kid in your life is difficult enough — even more challenging if that child has special needs.
Enter Maeve Jopson and Cynthia Poon, Rhode Island School of Design grads who started Increment, a company dedicated to creating toys that fit all kids, especially children with physical impairments.
Their first product, O-Rings, includes four colorful, stackable rings of different sizes, weights and textures. Watch the video below. Kids of all abilities and ages can play with them in games from ring tosses to obstacle courses.
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The O-Rings were inspired by a girl named Megan, who is blind and has other motor impairments that impact her balance, according to the company’s IndieGogo campaign. Megan had difficulty playing with toys with her seeing friends.
It’s a problem many kids with disabilities face — they want to socialize with their peers, but the proverbial playing field remains uneven. And young children may not understand how they need to change their play to include other kids who have different skill sets.
Jopson and Poon consulted children, parents, teachers and therapists, and created a toy that won Megan’s approval.
“We have seen the amazing benefit [the toys] have had on kids, families, communities, and the culture of learning in Rhode Island,” the team writes on this Awesome Foundation post. “We strive to create products that have a similar impact, and we believe in bringing inclusive play and accessibility into the heart of the massive toy market.”
The duo, recently featured by Women You Should Know, hopes to raise $30,000 to produce the first 150 sets of O-Rings. They envision eventually creating an entire line of inclusive toys.
Looks like there may be one toy that’s created equal after all.
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Memphis Houses of Worship Create a Magical Night for People with Disabilities

Buoyant bubbles drifted through the air as guests — clad in tuxedos and formal dresses— arrived, walking down a red carpet. The scene is familiar to anyone who’s attended a prom, but on April 25, the remarkable night was hosted not for a high school but for Memphis residents with disabilities.
The Joy Prom, sponsored by a group of local churches, was cooked up by Ashley Parks and Ginna Rauls, both active members in the Memphis special needs community, according to Good Morning America. The two wanted to give people with disabilities a chance to experience a night of primping, pampering and dancing.
They decided to call the evening the Joy Prom because “we decided we like ‘joy’ because that’s what we hope to bring,” Parks told the Huffington Post.
Parks, the special needs ministry director for Christ United Methodist Church, enlisted the help of 350 volunteers to collect donations that would be used to create the quintessential prom experience. Back in March, the duo hosted a prom dress donation drive, and a church member offered to foot the bill for tuxedo rentals from Men’s Warehouse. The community pooled together and even bought an ice sculpture and confectionary bar for the evening.
Guests were greeted on the red carpet by Memphis Grizzlies basketball team announcer Rick Trotter, who recognized them as they arrived by limo. Each host was given a card with their date’s allergies and a list of everything he or she wanted to experience that night.
Female guests could have their nails painted or makeup done while men were able to have their shoes polished. The crowd glittered with tiaras while guests danced the night away. “We didn’t miss anything,” Parks said.
But perhaps what made this prom more special than any other is the age range of its guests. Teenagers as young at 16 mingled alongside a couple in their 60s, giving everyone a chance to experience a night to remember.
“At a certain point people phase out of things but we said, you know what, lets open this up for people over the age of 22 and think of those who may not have experienced an event like this before,” Parks said.
The night was so successful, planning for next year’s prom is already underway. We’re guessing that the 2015 prom will be just as memorable.

Meet the Surprising Group of People Making Life Easier in the Kitchen for People With Disabilities

There are 54 million Americans living with a disability in this very moment. That number constitutes the country’s largest minority, and yet there seems to be little consideration for their needs in the kitchen.
Which is exactly why a group of student volunteers from Montana’s Highlands College in Butte are doing their part to service this need by building a brand new, American Disabilities Act-compliant kitchen from the ground-up. As the Montana Standard reports, these students teamed up with the Silver Bow Developmental Disabilities Council (an organization that provides services to disabled community members) to transform a unused and worn-down handball court into a gleaming “dream kitchen” for people with disabilities, providing easy and safe access to sinks, cabinets, counter tops and appliance.
After two years of building a kitchen from scratch, the project, called the Nutrition Education Station, is nearing completion. The aim of the Nutrition Education Station is to build a “teaching style kitchen for people with disabilities,” the Standard writes. Once finished, the space will be open to any organization that serves the disabled, allowing instructors to teach nutrition and cooking classes.
Bill Ryan, Chair of the Trades & Technical Department at Highlands College, told Montana Tech there is a growing need for spaces like this in the community.
“The number of people who are disabled and aging who choose to be self-sufficient and stay in their own homes is growing,” Ryan said. “This project was excellent for our students as they not only got to learn about the technical requirements for making a kitchen accessible to the disabled, they also got to work on a project which will directly help their own community.”
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How One Father Started a Movement to Employ Those With Disabilities

The hospitality industry isn’t known for being very hospitable towards hiring people with disabilities. Case in point: A study from the University of New Hampshire found that some hospitality employers have certain prejudices that disabled people cannot do the same work as effectively or are more expensive to employ compared to non-disabled workers. As Alanis Morissette would say, “Isn’t it ironic?”
However, a hotel that’s currently in construction in Muncie, Ind., wants to flip this notion upside down. As the Huffington Post reports, the Courtyard by Marriott is the first hotel in the country focused on training and employing people with disabilities. Most notably, the hotel plans to fill up 20 percent of its staff with disabled workers.
This initiative is all thanks to the efforts of Jeff Huffman, the father to a son with Down syndrome, who was reportedly inspired to act after seeing his son and others in the same situation repeatedly being denied a job. (The US Census Bureau found that individuals with disabilities accounted for only 6 percent of the country’s labor force.)
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According to HuffPost, Huffman approached The Arc of Indiana, an organization dedicated to finding employment for disabled people, and together they devised the blueprint for this first-ever type of hotel that aspires to bring more people with disabilities into the growing hospitality industry. In an Arc blog post, the organization noted that the hospitality industry added 80,000 new jobs last year alone, adding “this is an area where individuals with disabilities can not only shine but excel.” Disability Scoop notes that future employees will hold all kinds of positions, including management.
The new hotel is expected to open next summer.

The Nation’s Pastime Motivated This Disabled Teenager to Walk Again

A stiff-brimmed baseball cap. A bag of uncracked peanuts. A field of spring-green grass. Baseball’s opening day always brings a sense of renewed possibility to players and fans alike, even when the chances of winning a championship are stacked against them.
Sixteen-year-old high school baseball player Diego Alvarado has faced longer odds than most. Diagnosed with epilepsy as a baby, doctors finally managed to treat his seizures effectively by the time he was three, but his illness caused him to be developmentally delayed. Then when he was in middle school, aggressive leukemia struck. Doctors treated him with chemotherapy that badly damaged his joints. Alvarado ended up in a wheelchair and underwent two hip replacement surgeries.
Diego’s father, Colorado State Trooper Ivan Alvarado, told Neil H. Devlin of the Denver Post that he noticed Ivan was laying around the house, “being lazy like a teenager…but he had no quality of life.” He and the doctors decided to discontinue Diego’s chemotherapy, because as Ivan explained to Devlin, “We were faced with the decision of quality of life vs. quantity of life.”
They made the right decision: When the chemo ended, Diego transitioned from the wheelchair to a walker, and then told his P.E. teacher he was ready to go out for the Bennett High baseball team.
Coach Joe Stemo welcomed Diego on the team — Ivan didn’t even know his son had talked his way onto the Tigers’ roster. With two games under his belt, Diego has made contact with the ball, walked a few times and scored a run. Teammate Jonathan Cretti told Devlin, “It’s crazy how far he has come. He couldn’t even stand up in P.E. Now he’s playing baseball. And he’s always working his hardest. It’s one of the most incredible things I’ve seen.”
For the Alvarados, who immigrated to Colorado from Guatemala, Diego’s progress is just the thing that (ballpark) dreams are made of.
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Giving Special Needs Kids a Chance, Not Charity

Isaiah Pridgen, a second-grader from Northeast Washington, D.C., has chubby cheeks and an inquisitive approach to all conversations. On a cloudless afternoon last fall, he waited excitedly in line at Simple Changes Therapeutic Riding Center in Northern Virginia for his turn to mount a horse. It wasn’t his first time — to hear him tell it, as he constantly pushes his thick-framed, black sports glasses back up his nose, he’s practically an old ranch hand.
Isaiah was one of many children at the Lorton, Va., center that day participating in an “Extreme Recess” event hosted by Dreams for Kids DC. The nonprofit, whose original Chicago chapter was founded by lawyer Tom Tuohy in 1989, organizes adaptive sports events — like horseback riding, golfing or water skiing — for low-income children and for those with developmental and physical disabilities. The program isn’t designed to make athletes out of the kids, but rather to give them an opportunity to interact with their peers and mentors in a safe social setting, without having to fear being stigmatized, excluded or isolated.
“A lot of participants don’t feel like they’re always able to connect with other people sometimes, whether it’s because they’re in different classes at school or how they’re raised,” says Glenda Fu, executive director of Dreams for Kids DC, and the organization’s only full-time staff member. “But it’s great to see kids who are more shy or antisocial bond with one of our volunteers and have smiles on their faces.”
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The nonprofit’s ultimate goal is to empower at-risk children, particularly those with disabilities like Down syndrome or multiple sclerosis, who often don’t have access to the same physical and social activities as other kids. Yet everyone has the same desire to make friends, participate in sports or other pastimes, and feel like they’re part of a group — experiences that are known to contribute to children’s overall health and well-being. Dreams for Kids DC’s events are largely centered on physical activities that are geared toward increasing children’s coordination and strength, fostering a sense of personal accomplishment and, most important, improving their self-esteem.
“One of the most universal things about sports is that regardless of whether you have special needs or not, you feel that thrill of being on the ice or throwing a football. I think that’s why these children love it,” says Fu.
It’s Isaiah’s turn to ride. Yogi, a large brown horse, trots to the mounting area and a pair of volunteers help the young boy into the saddle. With two volunteers by his side and his mother, Alysia, watching from beyond a wooden fence, Isaiah sits as Yogi moves forward. But a few paces in, Isaiah starts to panic: “Mom! Mom! I don’t want to ride him! I don’t want to!” he screams.
Yogi stops moving and remains calm. Alysia walks to her son and soothes him. The group soon starts moving again, slowly, and circles the pasture. Isaiah, appearing quite pleased, dismounts and runs to the back of the line. He looks up at his mom and asks, “Can I ride him again? Please?”
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Isaiah and his family have been attending Dreams for Kids DC’s Extreme Recess events for three years. Like many of the 1,200 families served annually by the nonprofit, Isaiah’s family lives in a low-income area of the city and Isaiah was diagnosed with autism at age 3.  Over the years, Isaiah has skated with the Washington Capitals, thrown passes with the Redskins and shot hoops with the Mystics. He’s learned how to make pizza and to downhill ski. Alysia, who works as a help-desk analyst, says none of this would have been possible for her son without the help of Dreams for Kids DC.
There are many organized athletic programs for children with disabilities, such as the Special Olympics, the American Association of Adapted Sports Programs and the Inclusive Fitness Coalition, which are becoming increasingly popular at schools and in neighborhoods across the country. Like Dreams for Kids, these programs aim to encourage friendship, fair play and physical fitness, but the difference is that they require a sustained commitment from participants. Dreams for Kids’ activities, by contrast, are discrete events — families can attend as many or as few as they are able. The program is also targeted to underserved neighborhoods, and it’s free.
For the kids who participate, a single event can be life-changing. When a girl with autism, who has trouble communicating, scores her first goal against D.C. United superstar Perry Kitchen, or a boy whose family lives on a tight budget learns how to glide across a lake on water skis, it can make a tremendous difference in their development. “At my first Extreme Recess, golfing, there was a boy who needed a walker. When he got to the tee, he pushed [the walker] away and stood there by himself, golfing away,” says volunteer Heather Murfitt, a senior at Cazenovia College in upstate New York, who interned with Dreams for Kids DC in 2011. “Watching that was one of the most awesome things I’ve ever seen.”
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Since then, Murfitt, who is also a multimedia artist, has donated half of the proceeds from her art shows to the organization.
The horseback riding event at Simple Changes — which also treated the 40 kids in attendance to face painting, pony painting, a tour of a fire truck and plenty of pizza — was one of 16 Extreme Recesses held by Dreams for Kids DC in 2013. “Not everything out there is geared toward a child who’s unable to do something everyone else can do,” says Tracey Murphy, whose 10-year-old daughter rode a white pony name Dixie twice that day. “This is just wonderful.”
A volunteer, Lia Winnard, 17, kept a watchful eye on Dixie for most of the afternoon, guiding the majestic animal in circles while joyful youngsters mounted and dismounted, sometimes more than once. She knows firsthand what it’s like to grow up with a disability, having battled violent seizures since childhood as a result of mild cerebral palsy. After graduating from high school, Winnard plans to attend Longwood University in Farmville, Va., where she’ll study therapeutic recreation for the treatment of people with disabilities. “So many people have helped me all these years,” she says. “I just feel like I need to give back.”
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