16 Years

As of Yesterday I have been paralyzed 16 years, and for the first time in 15 years I didn’t even remember the day, until someone asked me today about my wheelchair. I knew this was the week, but it did not depress me as it has most years, and I could not remember the exact date. I had to look it up on a calendar.

My life has become so much more then the wheelchair over the years, I struggled for so long trying to be an “activist” it was my way of coping, trying to make the world conform to my needs.

I went back to college after my accident to finish my Degree - on the State’s dime. While there I was “Super Handicapped Guy”. I became President of “Horizons” a club for the disabled on Campus.

The timing was great, the Americans With Disabilities Act had been signed just months after my accident, so when I enrolled at University Of Central Oklahoma, in September ’91, they were ripe for a student who was just pushy enough to get himself noticed. In December of that year, I pulled my first stunt – I invited the Head of Maintenance, and one of the School’s VP’s to spend a typical School day with me, in chairs. I told the Head Therapist at O’Donahue Rehab Center, (where I had spent 6 weeks learning how to live in a chair) what I was planning. I remember the Evil Smile that only Denise could smile, as she chose the loaner chairs for my “victims”. These had to be the most rickety wheelchairs in the whole storage room.

Denise was a leggy redhead, with the mischievous attitude stereotypically attributed to redheads. She wanted these guys to have the roughest possible time. That attitude was also necessary for her job as Head Physical therapist. She wanted them to really understand, as much as a non-disabled person can what a disabled person goes through.

Well the day came. My first class – Biology for Non-Science Majors, (that meant we weren’t required to do labs), a trek across campus that normally took 8 or 10 minutes. I was met at the door of the dorm by the my victims, along with a reporter from the University newspaper, one from the University TV station, The Edmond Sun, The Daily Oklahoman, and Channel 9 News. Quite an entourage. We had started early, had breakfast, then off to Biology.

The route required going through the University Center, entering on the 2nd floor, down an elevator and out then out through the first floor. There were two elevators, but by coincidence one was down for repair. Only one of us could fit on the elevator at a time, we had agreed that the one rule in this game was no getting out of the chair, If I couldn’t neither could they. So I went down first, sent the elevator to the 2nd floor, apparently someone had called it to a higher floor, then it was full so the next wheelchair could not get on.

It turned into a 30 minute trip, but we had planned extra time and just made it to Biology. Several students from the class recognized the VP, and had lots of questions for him. The rest of the morning was like that. After my second morning class, we took a break in the UC. One of them went to the restroom, when he came out he said, “Scott, how would you like to see yourself in the mirror?” The mirrors were very high in the restroom, and all I could see was the top of my head, there would have been no way to make him truly understand it except for my little stunt. Well to make a long story short, they lasted till lunch, at which time I let them off the hook.

The next week I was asked to join the ADA implementation Committee. Ironically, I was the only disabled person on the committee.

Well I probably would not do something like that today, but then I am older and wiser, and as I said earlier, I have become more then the wheelchair.