 |
Sign the Able to Choose pledge! |
 It was windy. It was humid. And with top competitors dropping off, it was clear that the 31st SunTrust Richmond Marathon was going to be mastered by only the most tactically shrewd athletes.Within sight of the finish line – just over 150 yards away – the pace car turned off of Cary Street to give Matthew Deans an unobstructed view of the finish of the line. A final push to the tape. Completing a classic 26.2 mile text-book race, Deans, a Richmond native, cleared the line with a blistering time of two hours and ten minutes. Behind him were over 14,000 other marathon hopefuls, along with city streets teeming with spectators, shouting and gesturing. Deans, who used a hand cycle powered by his arms rather than his legs, was unfazed. He wins. He wins a lot. In fact, at 27, this serial competitor routinely swaps wins on the race course for the basketball court with ease, and even took home the “All Tournament” wheelchair basketball title in the same month as his decisive marathon finish. At 16, Deans was in a car accident, resulting in an incomplete spinal cord injury. “I have big hands and long arms, so it now comes in handy with wheelchair basketball and other sports,” says the 6’1 athlete. Before the accident the self-described “rabble raiser” played soccer, yet admits, “I didn’t realize how much my legs got in the way as a goalie in high school.” Today, Deans uses a combination of athleticism and good old fashioned competiveness as he takes to his hand cycle, travels nationally with the Sportable Richmond Rim Riders wheelchair basketball team, and completes his Masters Degree at Virginia Commonwealth University. Aside from racking up such sporty accolades and degrees, Deans is most proud of his work helping others. Employed as a vocational counselor at The Choice Group, he assists individuals with disabilities in securing employment in the community, while most importantly respecting individuality and the right to make life choices. “We’ve made some progress here in Virginia, and people for the most part want to do good…but Virginia is not at the forefront of disability rights,” he explains with a good natured ease that is classic Matthew Deans. Deans, along with other policy experts, explain that many citizens with disabilities require support in order to access their basic human right to live and work in the community. Deans points out that for decades, studies have proven community based employment and living provides a better quality of life than institutional settings, while at the same time representing a cost savings to tax payers. Recognizing this fact, State policy for 40 years has called for Virginia, which is ranked 46th among sates in its funding for community-based services for people with disabilities, to shift from institutions to community supports for it citizens with disabilities. “It’s not about your disability,” says Deans. “I remember being so fiery and ready to protest and picket when I was younger, but what I’ve come to realize is that it’s better to find ways to cooperate together.” He adds, “That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t join the fight. I have the ability to get out of my wheelchair and get over a curb for instance, but that doesn’t mean that I shouldn’t fight the city for a curb cut. We need to come together as a community, as a group.” Approaching disability rights and advocacy in the kind of tactful manner that he plans out and conquers a hilly marathon course, Deans sees Virginia as primed and ready for change. Virginia, he says, has a unique opportunity to reform its historical focus on large, state institutions and fully transition to a true community-based system of support for its citizens with disabilities. Deans, and other State residents with and without disabilities, are changing individual attitudes and actions, along with business practices, civic activities, and public policy to make all aspects of community life accessible, inclusive, and welcoming to people with disabilities. Dean’s story is one of many personal stories of Virginians with disabilities living in the community – and enjoying the same rights as others to work, play, win, and lose. |
The year was 1982 and Edward Ziegler was involved in an automobile accident that left him with traumatic brain injury shortly before Mother’s Day. He was in a coma for two months. What he had taken for granted up until that point in life -- talking, swallowing, eating, rolling over in bed, using the bathroom, and walking -- had to be relearned and modified.
>> LEARN MORE
Virginia Still Is Playing Catch-Up in Disability-Rights Arena
"Each Virginian with a disability deserve to enjoy the same benefits of society and freedoms of every day life that Virginians without disabilities enjoy."
- Gov. Tim Kaine
>> MORE
College Bound 2009
College Bound 2009 Registration deadline May 31, 2009
>> MORE
| Able to Choose A public awareness campaign funded in part by Virginia Board for People with Disabilities |
|
Toll Free Voice/TTY: 800-846-4464 Info@VBPD.virginia.gov Copyright 2009 |
