Disability Justice & Adaptive Sports

"We are pathfinders.  We enable occupations that heal.  We cocreate daily lives.  We reach for hearts as well as hands. We are artists and scientists at once.  If we discern this in ourselves, if we act on this understanding every day, we will advance into the future embracing our ethos of engagement.  And we will have reclaimed a magnificent."

-Suzanne M. Peloquin

I was very disappointed that I was unable to attend the Memphis Rolling Grizzlies, but I am so thankful that I got the opportunity to listen to the podcast, Disability Justice & Adaptive Sports.  Danielle Watson is an occupational therapist specializing in hand therapy.  She graduated from NYU with a degree in Art History and Philosophy.  In the summer of 2011, she had a horrible accident and fell while rock climbing in Colorado and sustained a T-6 SCI.  She went through several surgeries and lots of rehab and decided to go back to school with hopes of pursing a career in physical therapy.  With rejection after rejection, because of her disability, she thought about different routes which lead her to occupational therapy.  This podcast was interesting to hear someone with a disability working in the same field but also because hand therapy is also the route that I am interested in!  She made a statement that really stood out to me during the podcast, "If you are willing to work with people with disabilities, why not have colleagues with disabilities as well."  Just because someone is in a wheelchair does not make them any different.  She also mentioned how her accident gives her a way to relate with the hardships that her patients are going through which was really interesting to hear.  Danielle was very active before her injury and still continues to participate in wheelchair sports and marathons.  One thing that I took from her podcast was to have or find resources for patients that are dealing with this type of injury to help them get back to their life.  People with spinal cord injuries know their life isn't going to be the same as before and that can often cause depression along with a lot of other things and our job as OTs is to help them to have the best quality of life that they can have.  Miss Wheelchair Tennessee that came and talked to our class also mentioned the same thing about sharing resources, so this is definitely something I will keep in mind for the future.  Danielle's story was worth the listen and I love her passion for advocating for disability justice and am so glad she chose this amazing field!  Be sure and listen to her story and visit her website as well!

Podcast: http://www.ontheair.us/podcast1/episode-16-disability-justice-adaptive-sports

Website: https://daniellelancelotwatson.wordpress.com/