Observations From Below: A Brief Tribute
“My advice to other disabled people would be, concentrate on things your disability doesn’t prevent you doing well and don’t regret the things it interferes with. Don’t be disabled in spirit as well as physically.”-Stephen Hawking
When I was in elementary school, I was fortunate to have a great science teacher. She called herself “The Science Woman.” She taught the rest of the class and me the basics of many different sciences, from astronomy to environmental science to anatomy. I did well in the class. But the most important thing that I learned from her was not a particular field of science. She was the first person to introduce me to who Stephen Hawking was.
I’m sure most everyone knows now, but Stephen Hawking was a renown physicist who had ALS for an abnormally long time. He was known for his book “A Brief History of Time” and for his work on black holes. Even more than his scientific work, he became a pop culture icon by appearing on shows like “The Big Bang Theory” and “The Simpsons.”
Although I never had the honor of meeting him or attending any of his lectures, Dr. Hawking was a role model. Before I heard about his story, I didn’t want to use my speech synthesizer, because I thought it was a weird thing to do. But as it turned out, I used the same program he did, and even the same voice for a long time. So, in a lot of ways he made using the program cool, in my opinion.
I have read many other disability advocates reflecting on his life. And everybody points out that his disability didn’t hold him back from anything. In fact, in many ways, it helped him become the renowned scientist that people know.
In preparation for this blog, I read his autobiography, “My Brief History of Me.” It’s a fascinating short book, but he does mention some ways his disability helped him. One was because of his disability, he didn’t have to spend as much time teaching university students. Another was disability allowed him a lot of time to sit and think and come up with his theories. I’m in no way as smart as he was, and I am less affected physically, but we are both quadrupedal, meaning all four limbs are affected by some type of disability. Like Dr. Hawking, I do spend a lot of time in bed thinking. In fact, that’s where I come up with a lot of my blogs.
I guess being stuck in bed every once in a while, is not a bad thing. I think in many ways, Dr. Hawking opened up paths that I’m fortunate to follow. By hosting so many TV specials and having so many interviews in which he uses technology, he allows the general public to become comfortable with the idea that just because you can’t speak doesn’t mean you’re not intelligent.
Today I often give speeches through very similar technology, and often people laugh when they’re supposed to and basically as if I am speaking, which is the ideal response to me.
In his autobiography, I learned he went through a lot of the same struggles that I had gone through before he lost the ability to speak. He was with people he trusted to speak for him, just like I do. And he even lamented the company that built the speech program that we both use went out of business. He had kept three of his old devices just like I have. I would have thought because he’s a famous physicist, he could have gotten any technology he wanted.
But in some ways, I think it’s cool that we were in the same boat, trying to use old computers which had technology that worked for us. In fact, I’m typing this on an old computer. I’m in the process of getting a new speech device. I’ve learned that the government doesn’t buy computers like it used to. Now there are iPad with similar technology. But there are drawbacks. I’m in the process of trying programs out, and I’ve noticed the new stuff is not as versatile as the old stuff. So just like Dr. Hawking, I’ll be keeping the old system as long as I can. I still haven’t figured out why in the world that company, Words+, went out of business.
The lessons I learned from Dr. Hawking are not limited to technology. I saw a documentary which happened to show a scene with him eating. He had a tablecloth wrapped around himself. This is another example of when he made me more comfortable with myself. I’m quite a messy eater myself. The only difference is I wear aprons instead of tablecloths. I’m glad I saw that film clip. Before that, I felt a little bit less comfortable being a messy eater. But if a significant scientist can be a messy eater, then there’s no reason I should put unnecessary pressure on myself. It doesn’t mean I can’t try to be clean, but sometimes it’s easier to cover myself with something and go ahead and eat.
A friend in the disabilities rights movement once told me that you don’t have to be a full-time disability advocate to make a difference to people with disabilities. Sometimes, just by living a good life with a disability and demonstrating that to people, you are a disability advocate. I think that description fits Dr. Hawking very well. I also believe that it’s interesting that he was born 300 years after Galileo was, and died on Pi day in 2018, but that’s probably for another person to write about.
RIP.
That’s how I roll.