The Voiceless Minority

  The emphasis on science and technology is more critical than ever before. The earlier children are exposed to science and technology, the more likely they are to develop a love for it later in life. However, in my experience, if you are a student with a disability, there is a lot less emphasis placed on these subjects. Late last year, the state of Pennsylvania joined an ongoing effort to bring students with and without disabilities together in a new way. Thanks to Andrew Fee, the vice president of strategic partnerships for Pennsylvania Special Olympics, students in Western PA not only got the chance to build cool robots but also worked together to create a robot with a student with a disability. According to an article published last September by Disability Scoop, which I will link at the bottom of this post, several counties in western Pennsylvania participated in a robotics program developed by Unified Robotics. The program partnered students in science and technology clas...

Recently I finished a book entitled “Rosemary: The Hidden Kennedy Daughter” by Kate Clifford Larson. I was turned on to the book by my girlfriend Samantha Lebron. She knows that I love history, especially political history. When I first began reading the book, I wasn’t sure what to expect. The Kennedy family has been written about extensively. I thought this would be another look at the Kennedy family through the lens of politics, and, to some extent, it was, but it was much more than just a book about politics. As I got deeper into the book, I realized the book was about something more. It was on a deeper level about the history of the treatment of people with disabilities in the United States. Although Rosemary Kennedy was born to one of the most affluent families of the 20th century, unbeknownst to her she would face prejudices not only from the outside world but even from some members of her own family. Without recounting the whole book which I highly recommend you should read, I w...

So I've talked about some serious topics, but I've always thrown humor in on some level or another. Well, this one is going to be about the importance of humor and disabilities. To begin, let me get scholarly on you guys. What is "humor"? Humor has many different definitions, and it can be either 1.  a comic, absurd, or incongruous quality, causing amusement:  the humor of a situation. 2.  the faculty of perceiving what is amusing or comical:  He is complete without humor.        These were found at Dictionary.com. There are many different types of humor to each person; other things can be funny. Some who fall on their face might be hilarious to me but might not be all that funny to someone else. What does humor have to do with disability?  Everything . If one can't laugh at their obstacles, then they will be that much harder to overcome. I can't tell you how many times a day I make gimp jokes or lobster jokes. I call myse...