fourth grade music class the teacher sees that I have velcro shoes she starts to point at me and say why do you have velcro shoes you're just a baby all the other kids start laughing I start feeling the emotion I start feeling that anger and I say I'll leave it to you to decide I say screw you next thing I know I've been sent to the principal's office I I sit there with the principal and I describe this is what happened she called me out she excluded me next thing I know she had the teacher
come to the principal's office I was able to go back to class that was my early advocacy moment freshman year of college I take a really interesting class a class on Sports and Society I'm learning so much I'm learning about all the social issues in sport and also about Society I learn about racism I learned learn about segregation and exclusion around race and gender sexual orientation in the class in the book there's not a mention of disability for me in my experience as an athlete I felt it I recognized that something was different that there
was that segregation for athletes with disabilities the empty stadiums the stigma the labels the not understanding what was happening when there wasn't the support there wasn't the infrastructure there wasn't the ability to be valued as an athlete and for me I knew that I wanted to try to make make a difference I knew that I wanted to fill that book with that chapter on ability two years after college in 2000 I was able to take part in a program to learn about the Olympic values to learn about this concept I had never heard it before
as an athlete but I learned about this term olympism there are many components of olympism about how do you live your life on and off the field how do you compete with dignity and how do you compete with respect and fair play but there was this important Clause this important component of olympism that stuck with me it just spoke to me in so many ways any form of discrimination with regard to a country or a person on grounds of race religion politics gender or otherwise is incompatible with belonging to the Olympic movement this word this
phrase or otherwise spoke to me I recognized that that was me that included people with disabilities as well people with disabilities could be a part of this framework I recognized that there are Olympians there are male and female Olympians and I recognized that athletes with disabilities are par Olympians that's a label that we have that's a label that we are given but to me in my mind the way that I identify in thinking from a human perspective is that I identify as an Olympian the female athletes are not called fem Olympians we are all Olympians
in this way we are all reaching the Pinnacle of our Sport AS athletes we are athletes first in 2003 I had the amazing opportunity for the first time to go to the United Nations to work on an international treaty on the rights of persons with disabilities I was amazed I was overwhelmed I was inspired when I entered the building the very first time and I was told where to go which room we were in for the meetings they told me at the front they said this meeting is in the basement you'll be proceeding to the
basement I was confused I was caught off guard by the fact that they would have a disability rights meeting in the basement it seemed quite contradictory from thinking about the ideas of disability rights the idea of changing the Paradigm from pity and charity to power and empowerment the whole idea of the treaty was nothing about us without us this is the idea and so for for me to come to this meeting and for it to be in the basement I was quite concerned so I came to my colleagues and I said should we is this
an important advocacy moment do we need to be calling up the troops to make sure that we're no longer in the basement I asked around and finally I got the answer and they said actually all meetings are in the basement so you're okay nothing about us without us is happening there we are all included we are all working together to make this happen to make the world a community so that we can see valuing people and valuing inclusion as a priority I guess for me my final defining moment it really comes to how do you
engage how do you find a way to make inclusion happen how do you make daily inclusion everyday inclusion how do you make inclusive olympism to me that aha moment was a really important realization I realize that that sense of exclusion that sense of invisibility it was really about how do you interact how do you create a relationship how do you actually move from that sense of invisibility or exclusion in an interaction where you're not making eye contact where you're not engaging with every person as a human how do you then make that transition from that
exclusion feeling to a sense of valuing and experiencing full inclusion to me that inclusion process you go from a sense of invisibility in an excluded way to a sense of being so fully included you're so fully integrated you're so much a part of it and you're so much you're there and it's very powerful That's The Power of sport because you can be there you can be a part of the same community as everyone else and that can happen in a way where you're also invisible but you're so invisible because you're so included your identity everything
you stand for is included but it's so seamless it's so much a part of the community that it works one of the great ideas and one of the great things that I think is really important to think about is sports like blind soccer wheelchair basketball sitting volleyball those Sports can be for everybody whether you have a disability or not that can be the future of sport where people with and without disabilities are actually engaging together you can have sports that people with disabilities play in a in a sense of playing together but you can also
have events and and uh competitions where people with people with and without disabilities are in the sports to me that you can have an Olympics for people with disabilities but you can also have an ability Olympics for people with and without disabilities on the final point that I would like to make is really about a pair of glasses I would like you to think about how you engage on an everyday basis with every single person whether it's your best friend your spouse your boss your community your community leaders how do you have that interaction what
pair of glasses are you wearing are you wearing a pair of glasses of inclusion and opportunity where you see difference as an incredible Innovation or you have a pair of glasses that excludes do you have a pair of glasses where you say we don't want to be a part of this or we don't think that Community should be a part of this experience to me I would urge you all and urge everyone you know to think about the glasses that you wear to think about every interaction it's very powerful it means a lot to me
it means how do we make this happen in every setting in every moment that people feel included and valued thank you so much
