Search

Adaptive Sports My name is Adel Abdel Razziq. I'm 16 years old. I'm Jordanian but I live in Lebanon. I was born with one hand. I've been horseback riding since I was 4. In 2018, I started practicing martial arts and on my first competition, while I was fighting, I broke my toe and had a surgery that made me stop training for 3 months. I started competing again and won 6 fights in a row which made me the Lebanese champion at the weight of 56kgs on both divisions senior and junior. After that, I was introduced to bouldering and I started practicing bouldering in 2019. After a few months, I started bouldering outdoors in some mountains in the region. Hopefully, I can continue doing sports and achieve more success.

Dance For Life Jermaine Greaves I (@jermainegreaves) am originally from Georgetown, Guyana and migrated to New York City when I was 9 years old. Dancing makes me happy I was raised by my mother who taught me confidence and a strong sense of self. She helped me trust the process of my life’s journey always. Cerebral Palsy is a superpower that has changed my life every day. To be unapologetic, it allows me to be anything I want to be and to trust the process of my own journey. She also encourages me to try different things, grow into myself, and see the world differently. This is why I'm so confident. My passion for the arts happened when I was growing up with my mother who took me to various cultural events, such as Broadway plays and museums both in and out of town.

Smiles For Jake 4-year-old Jake is non-mobile and nonverbal, however, he has been the greatest teacher to those that know him. Anyone who knows Jake knows him for his trademark smile and heart-melting giggle. He is the younger brother to Sienna, 6, and their bond is truly magical. Jake is unable to walk or talk yet, but those that come in contact with him always walk away with a lesson and a full heart. The infectiousness of Jake's laugh, the cheeky glint in his eye, and his unbridled enthusiasm for people endears all. He has taught so many around him, in his community, his family and his friendships, how to live life with pure, simple happiness, despite challenges. He has been my greatest teacher, as a mother and his ability to exude gratitude is both humbling and inspiring. Jake teaches everyone, that you don't need words and full movement, to enjoy life to it's fullest, and that lesson is priceless.

5 year old playing piano with multiple disabilities. Hello, I would love to share my son. He is a very talented 5 year old who loves playing piano. Nathaniel was diagnosed with Optic Nerve Hypoplasia at 4 months old, then at 2 years old he was given 2 more diagnosis's, autism and cerebral palsy. Despite these diagnosis, Nathaniel thrives everyday to do his best!! Nathaniel has a full schedule with school and therapy throughout the week but always makes time and gets in piano time! He is self taught! AMAZING right!?

Wheel power 7 years ago, I had a life changing car accident. From healthy young man I started to see the world from a wheelchair user point of view. New height, new challenges, new perspective. We will celebrate the start of a new Jewish year, but before we will look back and try to evaluate what we achieved so far. I can say that I met my partner for life, married her, worked for our living, and of course enjoyed the little things in life. The end of Jewish year combined with the SCI (Spinal Cord Injuries) awareness month made me do some thinking. I realize how much wheelchair users can do. I remember the first days in hospital after the accident, after realizing I will be in a wheelchair, and the fact I thought I am doomed. Doomed to be social isolated, with no work, no friends, no relationship, and always asking for help. Boy, how wrong can one man be? People often telling me I have unbelievable strength. They don’t know how lucky I am that I had so many great people that helped me in much darker times. Without wonderful people that believed in me, I probably could not achieve anything. T3 incomplete paralysis was my name a while ago. Today my name is Adir, BSc. Degree and MBA holder, computer programmer, world-wide traveler, a husband, a friend, and a man that always try to wear a huge smile.

This Is What Inclusion Looks Like... Josh and Dave hang out. A lot. They talk about everything. They're coworkers and they've known each other over three years. They have a lot of the same hobbies and passions. The bottom line is, they just click. Josh has Autism and Dave is an educator. The pair share a synergy that many never find in a partner. Most importantly, they're on a mission: to help create a more inclusive world for all those who think differently - and based on this short film, most would say they are doing pretty well! After starting a podcast to "not let their conversations just go to waste," the pair applied to give a TEDx Talk. After recording only 12 short episodes, they found out that they were accepted. The film here, "Josh and Dave's TEDxcellent Adventure," documents the three month journey to the TEDx stage.

Series of wall art showing animals with mobility aid Hi, I'm Jana and I was diagnosed with McCune Albright syndrome at the age of one. While most physical hobbies are not suitable for me due to my fragile bones I tried painting and it was love at first brushstroke. This series of artwork is driven by my passion for the normalization of disability. Growing up and using a mobility aid was tricky in a way because I didn't often see the mobility aid part of myself reflected in toys and cartoons. On a rare occasion, I did see a mobility device it was used to make the character seem pitiful, weak, and/or old. This affected my self-esteem and I wish no person today needed to see a vital part of their existence being used to awaken negative emotions. I wanted to change that and make people with disabilities see the strong and beautiful sides of themselves in art as well. This is why I wanted to share my art and make someone's day a bit brighter and lovelier. I hope you guys love them as much as I do and they inspire you!

I believe that It's not what happens to us that changes our lives, it's how we deal with these episodes that determine its course I was diagnosed with Neuromyelitis Optica in June of 2012 after two hospitalizations totaling 5 months, during which I lost all my strength, ability to move and all feeling from my chest down… My first symptoms, during August and September of 2011, were nausea and vomiting. Nowadays, I know that those are very peculiar characteristics of the illness it turns out I have, but at the time, I didn’t have any idea. I had recurring hiccups and threw up so much that I lost 17.6 pounds ultimately becoming debilitated. I visited many doctors and had many tests, but nothing was found. The doctors told me that my exams were all clean. Therefore, no one was able to figure anything out. In the same fashion the symptoms showed up, they slowly went away. In October of that same year, I began to feel tingling in both feet, from the bottom of my soles to the top. On December 15, 2011, my legs fell asleep below my knees. I spoke to a friend, a vascular surgeon, who told me that this type of dormancy was neuropathic. I saw a neurologist who examined me and told me that what I had going on was quite normal: symptomatic and idiopathic. Symptomatic because all I had were symptoms; idiopathic because he didn’t know what it was. He prescribed some medication and suggested that I return in two months. But the sleepy feeling in my legs was only getting worse. Then, on February 9, 2012, an awful burning sensation started in my feet traveling up through my body forcing me to go to the emergency room. I asked the attending medic to call a neurologist because I knew something was terribly wrong, but she said that she could only call the neurologist in extreme cases and she refused to call him. I argued that she couldn’t possibly know what was going on with me or what the problem was, so how could she determine that I wasn’t an extreme case? But she was intractable! All I got from her was an analgesic to relieve the pain and a medication to calm me down. Then she gave me a medication for varicose veins! Three days later, I returned to the ER because of urinary retention. I went an entire day without being able to pee and could barely walk. But this time, God placed an angel in my life. The doctor who saw me, admitted me to the ICU to investigate the cause of my problems. During that first hospitalization, I lost my ability to move shortly after being admitted. I was given pulse therapy along with Solumedrol and gradually I regained movement. During the first 33 days in the hospital, I had several diagnoses: myelitis, idiopathic myelitis, transverse myelitis, and myelitis due to a lack of Vitamin B12. Despite being in a lot of pain, I was released. None of the nine doctors who treated me at the hospital listed nausea and vomiting as a symptom of the disease they had diagnosed. As a matter of fact, they did not even pay attention to those symptoms. Once home, I continued with pulse therapy and improved, such that I was able to stand and take a few steps, with the help of a walker and a physiotherapist. Almost a month after I stopped pulse therapy, I again felt neck pain radiating to my arms. The doctor, whose diagnosis had been myelitis due to lack of vitamin B 12, said that the pains were likely from the mattress and pillow, that I was lying down for long periods of time and that I would need to replace vitamin B12 for the rest of my life. He gave me permission to go back home. There, over ten days, the pain got worse and worse, until I was paralyzed from my chest down. I returned to the hospital. A private doctor took up my case. I had new pulse therapy and plasmapheresis. The inflammation almost reached the brain stem. For this reason, I stayed in the Neurological ICU for 18 days, plus 43 more days in the hospital, at which point I was released once again. One week later, after a relapse, my doctor rushed me back to the ICU. I was given a new pulse therapy, and I started treatment with azathioprine and an oral corticosteroid. This time, the doctors suspected Neuromyelitis Optica (NMO) also known as Devic’s Disease, though I had tested negative for the anti-aquaporin-4 biomarker and did not present anything in the optic nerve. At the end of May, I went to the Sarah Hospital in Brasilia, which specializes in neuro-rehabilitation, when for the first time, a doctor related nausea and vomiting that had occurred last September to my other symptoms. I came back home in August 2012, after almost 6 months of being in the hospital, still paralyzed from my chest down. That’s the clinical report. My own report is of tranquility and certainty that even with all that has happened to me, nothing happens just because, but because God has a plan. Through all of my hospitalizations and the five years since my diagnosis, I have never despaired or even asked why this was happening to me because I was sure that God wanted something from me. With that faith, it was much easier to handle all of these transformations. Coupled with this, every night, in my prayers, I visualized my improvement, like Wolverine in X-Men, who regenerates. Then I imagined each scar closing and me, walking, running, strolling on the beach, cycling – finally doing all the things I did before. And with the certainty that God was taking care of me, I knew that I would go through the storm that had become my life in the best possible way. When people ask me how I am, I reply, “Well! Every day a little better!” And I really believe that because I am a firm believe in the power of energy and words. We need to want and work for our improvement. Today, I am much better than I was given years ago. I have more strength and less pain and I can even stand for a few seconds without the use of orthoses! I do not walk yet but I know it will happen sooner or later. I play tennis in my wheelchair, do physiotherapy in the pool, and I participate in Pilates and bodybuilding. Every day, I try something new, trying to overcome in my own body and go beyond! And I count on a team of angels sent by God to help me – my son, mother, father, sisters, brothers-in-law, family, and friends. Because NMO is an inflammatory disease, in order to avoid new outbreaks, I eat an anti-inflammatory diet and have completely removed from my menu those products considered inflammatory such as milk, gluten, and sugar. I noticed the biggest improvement when I stopped eating white sugar. I gave up cakes, sweets, candy, boxed juice, etc. and noticed an improvement in both disposition and pain. On top of that, I lost weight! It was certainly not my intention but getting thin was great! I was taking 25mg of corticosteroids daily and had swelled up quite a bit. Eliminating sugar helped me get back to my previous weight after 5 years! Finally, because I believed that God was making me go through all this for a reason, I talked to Him and asked what He expected of me. It was then that I came up with the idea to create the “Menina Coragem” blog (Courageous Girl in Portuguese). The blog encourages people with or without disabilities in going through daily challenges of life. After all, we all have several daily challenges and it is up to each one of us to decide how to face them. You can follow me on www.meninacoragem.com.br and on Instagram/Facebook/YouTube @meninacoragem – Dani Americano, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil I use to say I’m not happy because of the disease but I’m not unhappy because of the disease as well... In fact, I’m happy despite of the disease! Because the disease or the wheelchair doesn’t defines me.. I also believe that it's not what happens to us that changes our lives, it's how we deal with these episodes that determine its course... So, I use to say I’m not happy because of the disease but I’m not unhappy because of the disease as well... In fact, I’m happy despite the disease! Because the disease or the wheelchair doesn’t defines me... I’m always trying new things, I like sports, but I’m not an athlete, so I like to try sports on my way: I like to swim, play Wheelchair Tennis, Ride a Handbike, do Yoga, Workout, do Ballet Classes... I like to look at ways to push myself to improve my health! My IG is called Menina Coragem, I’m Brazilian, and this name means Courageous Girl. My idea is to inspire people to continue to live their lives despite the challenge they are dealing.... because every one of us has daily challenges, and they are not just a diseased or a wheelchair... You can follow me at Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube on @meninacoragem

About me I was born with a condition called Charge Syndrome. It’s a developmental disorder that affects my organs and my eyesight. I have various conditions including Blindness, chronic fatigue and multiple polycystic organs. It’s hard to explain what i have really because it’s a pretty long list. But in addition to this I have a number of mental health issues. I have CPTSD, I’m bipolar and suffer from a number of kinds of anxiety. I’m currently an inpatient in a mental hospital. But to me those are all just labels. For the past 7 years I have been a cheerleader who has represented England. I moved by myself from the US to the UK to successfully complete two degrees and I overcame some really dark periods of trauma. I am a firm believer in yoga and mindfulness and have just qualified as a yoga teacher. I was even the “blind cheerleader” in a viral BBC documentary. Never let life get me down But to me this is just life. I don’t see my disabilities or mental illnesses as a reason to stop me from doing anything, weather that be getting tossed in the air and doing backflips or some days just getting out of bed and reading a good book. My goal in life is to help others realize that mental and physical conditions can be what we make them and that they are often surrounded by unfair stigmas. One way I do that is through sharing my life with the world. More of my story You can continue to experience life through my eyes by following blindgirlseesyou2020 on Instagram and blindgirlseesyou on Wordpress.

Shot in the back for my purse and two dollars Thirty-two years ago I was a college student at LSU I went out with my boyfriend to listen to some live music. We were held up at gunpoint in the parking lot, and I was shot in the back point-blank, which left me bleeding to death with a punctured lung and a severed spinal cord. The ambulance made it to the hospital in time to insert a chest tube and give me eight units of blood. I was stabilized and then received the news that I would be paralyzed from the waist down for the rest of my life. I asked at that time if I would still be able to have children one day. The doctor said yes, and that was all the motivation I needed to move forward. I finished my undergraduate degree in psychology and a master's degree in social work. Raising Children in a Wheelchair I met my husband in college, and we had three kids, Caroline, Austin, and Joseph. My pregnancies were relatively normal, and they were all born healthy. I took care of all of them from my wheelchair and worked off and on while they were growing up. I would load them all in the car and then load my wheelchair, and we were off to the grocery store. I was room mom at their school and taught Sunday School. I was on the sidelines at their football game and front row at the dance recitals. These kids are now twenty-five, twenty-two, and nineteen years old, and they are all in college. Their father unexpectedly passed away three and a half years ago, but they are all survivors and doing great. My Work, My Passion, My "Crowning" Achievement I worked as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in Rehabilitation for most of my career. I was helping other people with new disabilities navigate their way through rehab, discharge and the beginnings of their new lives. I have worked for Numotion for the last four years in various sales positions and I am now their Brand Ambassador. You can read my blogs and follow my social media @LifePossibleKR. Advocacy for people with disabilities has always been my passion. The Ms. Wheelchair America organization is a competition based completely on a woman's history of advocacy, not a beauty contest. I was Ms. Wheelchair Louisiana 2018 and had the honor of winning Ms. Wheelchair America 2019. I traveled to 25 states and 43 cities to talk about the importance of standing technology for people with disabilities. It was an amazing adventure and I loved every minute of that crazy year.

Louie’s differences Louie was born with achondroplasia, the most common form of dwarfism. He’s a little person. This is a random RARE genetic mutation (1 in 40,000). We were completely shocked when we found this out prenatally at 35 weeks as he is our youngest of 5 and no one else has any medical issues! Today he is 18 months old and the journey has been so much more beautiful than we could have ever expected. Louie brightens everyone’s day no matter where we go. So, my reason for sharing, next time you see a little person around town, please smile and say hi and know they are JUST like you, only a little smaller!!! #theGiftofLouie “Different isn’t sad, bad, strange or weird. Different is different and different is ok!”

My Netflix Role and Company I Started Hi! I am Sammi Haney, I’m 9 years old, and I play #Esperanza on the #Netflix Series #RaisingDion and I also started my own t-shirt company www.disabilityshirts.com (link in my profile bio) to provide themed apparel for people with disabilities (and their parents and supporters) in a mission to spread awareness, acceptance, and love for the special needs community. My Rare Brittle Bone Disease I was born with Osteogenesis Imperfecta (O.I. or Brittle Bone Disease). I was diagnosed in the womb, and even though there was a planned c-section, I was born with 19 detectable fractures in various stages of healing. I have broken hundreds of bones from simple things like tossing and turning too much when asleep (when I was younger) or simply sneezing too hard. My O.I. doesn’t just effect my bones, but also my teeth, lungs and much more. I get infusions to make my bones thicker, but they are still brittle (in the same way that thicker styrofoam is stronger, but it is still brittle). I also have telescoping rods in my arms, legs and back, which straightened all of my bones which were curvy from multiple breaks, and allow my bones to heal better when I do break. I have had to wear many medical braces and have had lots of surgeries, but I never let that get me down! I have brittle bones and live life to the fullest! I Hope to Change How People See People with Disabilities I hope people can see past my wheelchair, and see me, as a person. When my parents told people about me being on a Netflix Series, it was disappointing that some of them assumed it must be a show about my medical condition, as if that is all they could see about me, and as if that is the only kind of show that people with disabilities can star in. I got the part, as my parents were told, because when they watched my audition tape I made everyone in the room laugh, and they loved my sassy personality. My wheelchair is not what got me the part. Hopefully by being on Netflix’s Raising Dion I am able to help remove the stigma that people with disabilities cannot star in major drama series. #yoocandoanything #yoocan #disability #inclusion #wheelchair #story #sammihaney #teamsammi #awareness