This is the first of many articles I hope to share with you through our mutual work at Community Gatepath. Today I want to talk with you about your vision and mine for our children with disabilities.

We all must understand that our vision is one and the same for all of us, for your children, for our children. That vision includes:

1. Having a preschool opportunity which leads to school readiness and in turn to the following:
2. Living independently
3. Enjoying self determination
4. Making choices
5. Pursuing meaningful careers
6. Enjoying full inclusion and integration in the economic, political, social, cultural, and educational mainstream and fabric of American society

You may already be thinking what is this about; my child is a preschool student, my child is just a baby. But now is the time for you to begin on a journey, a journey of advocacy for you child and your dreams for your child!
You need to be an advocate for your child and all of our children. Teach us by your advocacy how to better serve all of our children. We, you and I, need to ask policymakers, politicians, superintendents, all of our community to help us reach the dreams we have for our students. A few of them include:

1. Providing mechanisms for school districts to develop or expand support and prevention services.
2. Holding special education services to high standards of accountability to improve results for students with disabilities in one accountability system.
3. Assuring that students with disabilities are educated in settings with their typically developing peers to the maximum extent appropriate to their individual needs with access to instructional areas designed and delivered around their unique needs.
4. Assuring that school personnel and families have the knowledge and skills which enable them to effectively assist students with disabilities in attaining high standards—good and minimal are not enough. We need access to high quality instructors, high expectations, and opportunities to demonstrate skills.

We need to be teachers and advocates today and everyday. We are a powerful voice and bring a critical perspective to our community, our cities, and state, our nation, and her legislators and policy makers. You are a parent of a wonderful child, a child who must be considered in everyway and every decision. You/we bring a picture of a child, our child/your child, to share—paint that picture in a powerful way, so powerful that he or she sticks in the minds and hearts of our legislators/policymakers/IEP and IFSP Teams as they go about their work. And, if you have a real picture, bring it and place it in the center of the table for all to see! Talk about your child, his needs, her wants, your wishes for each of our children! These stories help when any decision regarding education is made, so that your child, our children come to mind and are reflected in those decisions.

Now, if you think you are only one voice, what can that mean, how can I help—remember and tell people, my child or your child is only one and our most important one, but our child is one of 6 ½ million children in public school in this nation right now who are identified as a child with a disability. That represents two parents for each of those children, that represents grandparents, aunts, uncles, brothers, and sisters of those 6 ½ million children. That represents teachers, support staff and administrators of those 6 ½ million children. We are a powerful lobby many, many million strong and growing! And each one of us votes! You, we together are a force to reckon with!

So be bold, be specific, and share your child/our child’s story so that that picture sticks in the listener’s heart and mind!

We have, sadly, too few teachers, too few administrators, not enough policy makers remembering all means all. That accountability is not just for general education. It is not. It is for the schools, teachers of your children and my children too. It happens all the time and this is why your voice today and tomorrow and the picture of your child and his needs/her wishes are so critical.

Finally as you tell your child, my child’s story today and tomorrow remember to share your dreams and aspirations for him. Let people know where you child is going, to which star you want her to reach.

Reflect on the suggestion from Pat Linkhorn, a parent mentor in Ohio. She is the parent of two children with special needs—Kim, a teenager with autism, and Krystal, two years younger, who is blind. Pat said, “Remember to celebrate your children’s successes and dream some impossible dreams. Write them down somewhere and read them every so often—and aim high, because it is not impossible.”

Let me tell you a story of a child, now a man, who along with his family did just that. I first met Dan Boomer, Dr. J. Daniel Boomer to be exact, in 1997. Dan works as a consultant in the special education division at the California Department of Education. Dan was born with the challenge of cerebral palsy. He was so very lucky though, for he was born into a family who believed Dan could do and be anything! Dan struggled to learn to walk and learn how to speak so that others could understand. He was more than three when he was able to do so. He graduated from High School, he went to college and he as achieved four degrees, a Bachelors, two masters and a PH. D. ...in mathematics and rehabilitative sciences. But Dan’s story of an experience he had when he was a boy is what I want you to hear:
“When I was about ten my parents got me a bicycle because I was getting too big for my tricycle. Like all bicycles for ten year olds, my bicycle came with training wheels. After a while I realized my friends were riding bikes without training wheels; my training wheels had to come off because I needed to be like my friends. It took about three or four summers to learn to ride that bike.

“I broke my arm once, I knocked myself out two or three times, and for about three summers I had no skin on either elbow. Once I got the bike going I could not stop it. So I would run it into a ditch or try to use a tree or building to slow myself down so I could stop. When my parents tried to take my bike away, I would just get on my brother’s bike. Finally, all my parents could do is to get me to agree that I would get help if I got hurt. At the end of those three or four years, I could ride that bike just like anyone else. I could even take one hand off the handle bar to wave at someone as I rode by.”

There are risks and consequences and rewards to everything. Dan’s challenge to us is are we willing to risk riding the bike, and are we willing to risk riding the bike knowing that we will in fact, crash and burn…but ultimately we and our children will know the fruits of success, for without risk there is no opportunity to achieve one’s dreams.

So dream big—reach for the stars for your children. Be your child’s first and best advocate! “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly, for what is essential is invisible to the eye.”¹

1 Chavez, Cile. “Keynote Speech.” National Association of Directors of Special Education Annual Meeting. 1999.