2007-11-22 - 8:20 a.m.
I am thankful for living the way I do. The simple joy of being with Nya in our own home in a beautiful city. I know that many people with disabilities don�t live this way. In my participatory action research class, I�m currently working on a group project looking at �integrated� vs. �segregated� housing for people with disabilities. Apparently, I live in integrated housing. But I had never even heard the term before I started working on this project.
My condo is just my home, our home. It�s the intersection of what we can afford and what makes us happy. There�s a coffee shop on my corner. I go there several times a week. There�s a library a few blocks away. I used to go there every week or so, although now I have more than enough reading with school. Lake Michigan is a half-block away. There are buses near us to downtown, to Nya�s work, to my work, to school.
There are alternatives to this. The most extreme example of segregated housing is probably a nursing home. It�s not just old people, but younger people with disabilities living together in a separate, marked space. There�s not much for younger folks to do (not much for older folks either). You have to sign in and out if you leave (which you probably rarely do). There may be cameras in your room. In short, it�s a nightmare.
How am I able to avoid this? Well, I now receive financial aid from the federal government. But I can assure you that it�s quite minimal and there are all sorts of rules and restrictions attached to it. I think I�ll write about it�s ridiculousness in a later entry. But for now, I�ll just say that the government plays only the smallest role in maintaining our lifestyle.
What does in short is that we are both smart people with families who love us and have the resources to help us. Nya�s mother paid for most of our wedding in Vegas and my mother paid for (took extra jobs to pay for, in fact) the reception in Westchester. (The celebration in Brooklyn and our honeymoon were mostly put on credit cards to be worried about later.)
Nya�s mom furthermore helped us out financially until Nya was able to get a new job. My mom covers our health insurance and finances No Pity Mobility Corp. to pay a small salary to me. My proverbial rich uncle (actually great-uncle) gives me a sum every month. Our condo is actually owned by my dad. He pays the mortgage and we pay the monthly assessment fee, the semi-annual property tax, and the utility bills. It works out to about a 50/50 split.
There are many people who simply can�t do this. Who are not from middle-class backgrounds and don�t have a social safety net of family and friends to help them out. Disability can be an ugly world of poverty and despair. In fact it can be so ugly that a lot of people don�t want to even look at it, never mind carefully consider it. However, I am very grateful to have a chance to examine it at a school that specializes in that.
So thank you to our families, to the University of Illinois at Chicago, and most of all to Nya.
� 2007 Geoff Gladstone
If you�ve ever enjoyed my writing, please donate to the Accelerated Cure Project for Multiple Sclerosis and/or the Montel Williams MS Foundation.
Sign My Guestbook!
powered by SignMyGuestbook.com
�
