with that memory, was there pain when you moved or was it more restriction? It was like a mix of both.

It was a lot of pain because arthritis just causes so much inflammation and so much rapid deterioration.

And then because my disease was so rapid and just angry, for lack of a better word, it started in my right knee.

And before I knew it, it was into the left ankle and then it was into the right hip and then it jumped over to the hands.

I mean, So I was just like this big Jenga aggravation game, right? For the doctors and for me and for my parents.

No, it was not fun.

Eventually, you know, uh, thankfully my parents let me be in charge of my medical decisions starting at age 15.

Can you talk about that a little bit?

So why does going above and beyond ADA code matter? It's for people who think accessibility is already handled once requirements are met.

Right.

Right.

Yeah, great question.

So going above and beyond with you, sorry, going above and beyond ADA code is so important because so often people think that code is the very minimum or actually the very maximum that they can do when the reality is the minimum.

So ADA code is like the floor and you can go to the ceiling or break the ceiling.

And there's a saying in disability community of nothing for us without us.

So, you know, I like that better, like guilt them into not parking.

So how did those early years shape your understanding of yourself?

It really made me have a desire for words, right? When you're young and you're going through tons of pain and new medications and being thrown into this very antiseptic, bland world, living more in a hospital and in therapies.

living more in a hospital than therapies spaces, it was very different.

And I was around a ton of adults.

So, you know, I'm very well-rounded when it comes to interacting with my peers, but probably more so interacting with the generations that are older than me, because that's really where I grew up and where I learned a lot of my soft skills and ways of, you know, being resilient, right? Being stubborn for some of us that are from the Scandinavian background.

I think there's stubbornness in other backgrounds as well, but that's my lived experience.

And so, you know, I also say a lot that I'm, I don't really know what word, adjective I typically use with it, but I'm fortunate that I was disabled at a young age because it was just a different way of life, right? Like, I have memories of walking and skipping and jumping and swimming in Lake Superior and all of those things that maybe are impossible or differently possible today, but because when i was disabled as a child right like i don't know any different i have amazing other memories that were created from my wheels and my wheels give me freedom it is not something that i'm bound to or something that should be pitied or something that um is negative right the the places and spaces that people put me in that are not accessible that is what creates my disability more than my arthritis more than my diabetes more than my joint replacements right like Being in a world that wasn't built for me is what is actually the disabling condition, not the things that my body goes through.

What did teaching children reveal about inclusion that policy alone never could?

Tell us a little bit more about that.

Yeah, um, so really my whole public speaking, community leadership, all that started back in 2016.

Uh, one of my PTs and OTs recommended me or nominated me for, uh, the Journey Award at a local rehabilitation unit.

And so the whole point was that they get to nominate, um, patients that they see that are impacting the disability community and culture.

And so at that time, it was really odd, because I was so focusing on my own medical journey.

Newer in my career, um, had moved from, you know, private music teaching into public school education teaching, um, dealing with medical stuff, dealing with post-surgery things, and I was like, "You're nominating me for what? This doesn't make any sense.

[laughs] Like I'm just trying to, I'm just trying to thrive and survive," right? Um, but that was really a pivot point for me, because it s- it showed me that other people were seeing things in myself that I wasn't seeing, and I wasn't intentionally doing the work, right? Um, so that led to me becoming a Blandin, uh, Community Leadership, uh, Cohort member and in 2017.

So, uh, over to you.