Growing up did you know people with disabilities?

I went to school with a girl who has cerebral palsy. In her case, she could walk without crutches though her gait was “odd.” (I say odd because to the seven year old that I was, that was the word that i had for it.) To describe it now, I would say a severe limp. She also had a speech impediment, but if you listened closely enough you could understand what she was saying. We were in Brownies together for two years and for the first year I had a hard time understanding her, and was a little scared of her. After that first year, I didn’t really think about it. My mom was my Brownie leader and she was insistent that this girl would be treat like everyone else. Some of the girls didn’t want to be her partner for things, but my mom would have no part of that. Everyone worked with everyone and that was that.

In junior high there was a young man who had been through a traumatic car accident. His mom and sister died. He would have random verbal outbursts that had nothing to do with anything going on around him. With intensive therapy, he finally stabilized and is leading a happy, productive life.

I grew up in the 60s-70s.

Among my classmates, no one had disabilities. Or at least they didn’t go to our school. (Upper-middle suburbia)

My classmates’ parents were a different story. At least two of them (one girl’s dad) suffered from polio and could only get around on crutches. He died when my friend was about 14.

Another girl’s mother (across-the-street neighbor) suffered from MS. She was in a wheelchair for as long as I can remember; she also was a two pack a day smoker, and I don’t know if she died of the MS or of lung cancer.

The only kid I remember with a problem was one who was diabetic – he had to go to the nurse’s office every day to get his insulin injection.

My stepfather was in a cover band for a while. The lead guitarist’s daughter had Down Syndrome. She was… in her early 20s I think, when I was ten or so. I considered her a friend. She liked to make art projects, and we spent many jam sessions painting on mirrors.

One of my high school friends lost his leg to cancer when he was 14. We’re still facebook friends. My parents never met him.

In Elementary school, one of my classmates was deaf. No one told us she was deaf, and that label was never applied. We just knew she had trouble hearing. It wasn’t until long after I married my wife, that I realized Francie was deaf.
In Middle school, a close friend had cerebral palsy. She struggled on crutches every day. I would always talk with her, and keep her company while everyone else avoided her.
In High school, I remember one boy had a club foot (I guess that was what you would call it), who I called a friend.

Your question reminded me of a classmate I hadn’t thought of in many years. His name was Carl, and he was one year older. A victim of severe polio, he walked with great difficulty on crutches. Carl was extremely bright, especially in math, and I imaged him to be a scientist in the making (though I think he became a lawyer). I have to admit I thought him not very likeable. He could be occasionally pleasant, but more often, he was curt and sarcastic. Frankly, I was never comfortable around Carl, not only because of his unpredictable behavior toward me, but frankly, because of his disability, which caused him to be slow and awkward and made me feel I should be more deferential toward him than I wanted to be.

I have to add that Carl, who got polio very young, seemed to have adapted quite well to his disability (physically, if not emotionally) and to have been far less concerned about it than I and others, for which now, as an adult, I greatly admire.

I remember students with Down’s and cerebral palsy (well, I assume) interacting with us in the regular classes every so often in elementary, middle, and high school. I don’t remember thinking much of anything about it, to be honest. I don’t think much about it now. My parents didn’t have anything to say about it either. Should they? It didn’t seem too out of the ordinary for me then or now.

One of my friends had a little brother with Downs and I know there was a kid in high school who used a wheel chair but I have no idea why, we were not friends.

I don’t know if you want to count high school in this, but my French teacher contracted polio as a child. She had braces on her legs and used crutches in class. She used a motorized “scooter” in the halls at school. I remember her beeping the horn on it when she was trying to get through a crowd. She was funny, sarcastic and the best teacher I ever had.

My younger cousin has cerebral palsy. She has always been in a wheelchair or on crutches. She also is partially deaf and has learning disabilities.

We saw each other almost every week (along with her sister). We had a very friendly relationship up until about five years ago.

I never gave her disability much thought. She’s just my cousin.

I never had that privilege until I was in college and met pediatric patients with whom I would work.

My cousin my age is severely mentally disabled. I am his favorite “girlfriend”.

My high school had a specialist unit for deaf children, with about eight students of various ages, but they tended not to mix with hearing kids so I never got to know any of them. There was also a girl in my class who became disabled at the age of 13 from some acute illnes, though I never learned what it actually was. I have no idea how my parents handled disability, they never met any of these kids. To my knowledge they still don’t know anyone who is disabled.

I volunteered at a special education preschool when I was in middle school. All of the kids had some sort of disability. For many, it was only a speech problem, but there were kids with all sorts of disabilities. Once a three year old named Walter tricked me and pretended to have to go to the bathroom. I went in the stall and he locked me in and then crawled out from under the stall and ran out of the bathroom. I was convinced he was a genius. Then I found out he had Down’s syndrome. I couldn’t decide to be happy he broke the stereotypes of mentally disabled people or be humiliated that a three year old with DS outsmarted me.

My little sister was special needs, she had severe physical and mental delays, and so it was all kind of normal to me. I learned at a young age to treat people with compassion and not to stare with my mouth hanging open at people that might look different.

My aunt’s husband has a missing arm because of an accident.

As a child, I stared a little bit at first and then after having the accident explained by my mom, I never really thought about it much he’s just my uncle Brian.

I can remember a few people at school who at disabilities. When I was around 7–11 years, one of my classmates, Ross, was deaf. That was probably my first experience. Then when I was in secondary school (ages 12 to 16 years) another friend, Laura, suffered a brain tumour which left her with short term disabilities. Thankfully she appeared to make a full recovery if her Facebook activity is anything to go by.

A classmate of mine in elementary school, a boy named Billy, had been a victim of the 1950s polio epidemic. His legs were in braces and he used crutches. I was in the same class with him from third through sixth grades and knew him very well. He sat next to me and used to pass notes to me in class, and he shared his 48-color Crayola box with me when everyone else was stuck with the standard-issue eight crayons.

Kids regarded his condition as a curiosity at first, but pretty quickly it was simply seen as the way he was, just as some kids are short and some have long hair and some wear glasses. It was normal for Billy. I can’t remember anyone’s ever giving him special treatment, either favorable or unfavorable, except his mother, who overindulged him (like with the special crayon box).

I do remember that he liked to show off how fast he could move across the floor without crutches, as quick as a lizard, on his belly, just using his hands, with his shrunken legs dragging behind him. The rest of us couldn’t do that and were impressed. He was also damned fast on his crutches. He joined in many of the recess games and could give a kickball a powerful whack with a crutch.

There was nothing for my parents to handle. We were friends. Simple.

I was the kid with the disability.

Or was I? From 9th through 11th grade, I was in the top 10 out of over 600 classmates, based on test scores and GPA. In 12th grade, I changed schools and ended up being the valedictorian.

Disabled? Yeah.