Disability

 I was out in the small lane (alley) behind our house a couple of weeks ago. My neighbor was there with her three year old son . He had to show me how good he could ride his tricycle.  And then he wanted me to watch how fast he could run. He was just so pleased with himself and glowed with my praise!  I had been watching the Olympics at this time and thinking about movement and why the Olympics have lasted so long and the importance they have not only to the individual athlete but also to the rest of us too.

Movement of the body in sports or other activities is something that is universal. Our earliest memories of movement and the praise we received for our progress in the basic milestones from raising our heads to running fast. So watching the superbly,fluid and controlled movements of the athletes bodies in gymnastic,diving, running, swimming and other events allowed us to relate to them. We could understand and feel in our gut the difficulty of their skill and admire the ease with which they appeared to perform them. And of course we related much more when the activity was something similar to which we ourselves  participate in.

No wonder the Olympic games every four years have been so successful. And how natural for us to develop the Paralympic's too!

Go to www.ParalympicSport.TV or www.universalsports.com they both carry them live or on video.

But relating to the athletes in the Paralympic's can be a stretch for some of us. I think I can honestly say that I am much more aware of that this year.  As the Paralympic's are not covered by the television stations I had watched very little of the Paralympic games until 2 years ago when the Winter Paralympic's were on the Internet.  Being a physical therapist I could watch the athlete's perform in their event with their disability and relate to a degree.  Some of my feelings were of both amazement and appreciation of how they adapted but there was none of that gut feeling.

But that was not the case for me with the Beijing Paralympic's . From the beginning of the opening night ceremony I just wanted to cry!  But it wasn't from sadness due to their disability it was more from a sense of joy that they were there and that the world recognized them and that they should be there too.

In the opening ceremonies the weaving of those with disabilities into the artistic program was outstanding . The participants in the  program were the disabled from all over China.  From listening both to the pianist and to the singer who were both blind to the dance using sign language by those who were deaf. And then onto the ballet which included a young girl in a wheel chair who had lost a leg in their recent earthquake also using her arms to the music of "Bolero" .

Then as the athlete's proudly came in using their wheelchairs,assistive devices as well as walking independently I watched not just with amazement but also hope.  The hope that they were representing a new age in China and in the World that there was a place for people who have a disability . 

I understand that able-bodied people cannot fully relate to these athletes from having an understanding with their own bodies. But I do feel that they can relate with an appreciation of how hard these gifted athletes work as well as amazement of how they compensate. And thru their own awareness of how technology is helping them will increase their awareness of how technology can help people with disabilities compensate so much better.

The New York Times recently posted a fascinating article on a Paralympic wheelchair basketball player who's engineered some of the best athletic wheelchairs available.  Check it out at http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/09/sports/othersports/09wheelchair.html It's fascinating.

But I personally feel in order to do this able-bodied people have to  move from being uncomfortable around a person with a disability and feeling bad for them to accepting that there are people with disabilities. And then make the shift in their thinking of the disabled to what they can do with the right environment and tools.

As Natalie du Toit says: " The tragedy of life does not lie in not reaching your goals ;

The tragedy of life lies in not having goals to reach for".

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