See the Person, Not the Disability: Navigating Life’s Challenges

What are some of the everyday challenges of living with a disability—and what can other people do to make a difference?

Barrett shares personal experiences with friendships, social situations, accessibility, doctors, restaurants, and other moments when he hasn't always felt heard or taken seriously.

One of his most important messages is simple: when you're with someone who has a disability, talk to that person first. Don't automatically direct questions to the person accompanying them. Give people the opportunity to speak for themselves.

Barrett also discusses the importance of finding trustworthy friends, building community, being honest with one another, and having the confidence to be yourself even when you feel different.

Through his own experiences, Barrett hopes to educate people, encourage honest conversations, and show others facing similar challenges that they aren't alone.

Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:15

Don't everything bad. Everything's going to be a good one. So what else can we do for you? I got it from here. Welcome to the Consumer Spider-Lay podcast. Thanks for voice things. That was my introduction of being governor, which I now call a spiky governor, because I'm the governor of Swag. So today I want to talk to you about learning how to deal with the challenges that the world gives you. The world gives people with disabilities, especially me. Cause I have so evolving different and sometimes very difficult challenges. Whether that's socially or community or even spiritually. And finding activities that I enjoy with my friends and with my peers and community. One of the one of these might be going out to eat. For me, I got a low voice when you see me out in public. So loud loud crowds do not work out me that well. So what I try to do is find places that are accessible for my wheelchair, which that's odd enough. Especially when you're in a small town, but I'm not anymore, I'll get that later. And finding people that treat you for you and not for your disability and all this other stuff. But in saying that, if you find a couple people rather than one or two people that treat you for who you are and that you can trust them. Honestly, it's easier. To me it's easier when you deal with unknown obstacles in your daily life. The least challenging things I face every day are the getting up in the morning even though I have to rely on somebody to help me get up. That's one of the least challenging scenarios I have to worry about. Also, for people that are my real friends, I can talk to them whenever they're not busy or find somewhere like the park they go to just to kinda wind down. Um I also find not as challenging but walking around in my case driving around places because I wrote and stroll down the down the sidewalk sometimes down the street. Next I'm gonna talk about what other people include include including myself with other disciplines are facing that I know of with my own experiences. So I noticed in my lifetime that they have these disability events, whether that's the Special Olympics area or finding somebody to take you serious. Now me I had issues with doctors taking me serious, people taking me serious, waitress taking me serious, and most of all when I had to be put to sleep for whatever reason I have the Germans whatever the person is that helps go to sleep, take me serious, to the point where he thought I was ready to go to sleep, but I wasn't. And I end up waking up, panicking wherever you go to, you know, recover from anesthesia. And the reason I don't name a specific place, because it all depends on where how severe the um place really is. So, you know, it could be many things, but my issues with the doctor and it's not just me. Other people have issues like when they have to go in for surgery and whatnot, and they have to they have to de they have to deal with the same things as me. Um doctors talk to the other person that I'm with and sitting with me. Um you know, it's some people want to help but they don't know what to say, so they just start you awkwardly, and it's not just me anymore. Or some of your friends try to try to make you seem included without asking you, do you have any ideas on how we can encourage you into this game like to be? I'll tell you this to prove this point. Always ask the person with a disability first. I don't care if they're cognitive or whatever the scenario may be. If you ask them and you don't get the answer you need, then ask the person next to them that bought them. But never, ever ask the person that brought them first. Always ask the person with a disability first before you ask the person um can they do this, can they do that? Or one more thing. Always take the person with a disability as their word, it's okay not be not be sure, but I say it's better to ask the person with a disability first if they and if they seem like they're capable and trustworthy enough, then go with what they say. Don't ask the same person about them the same question. Cause I can speak from experience it's like insulting. It's like insulting me for what I just what I I just told you and they said the same thing Which leads me into my final question that I get asked most often. What are the hardest challenges that you face? One is finding a close social group that I can try can trust and communicate to. Two, it's finding um people that I can be social with. You know, you would see them every day. And three finding people that believe me who I am and not for my disability. To me, I'll just I feel like people don't want to be honest with me because of my disability. And I think all of us people with disability and people that are honest enough, we don't want to be like, oh yeah, good job when really we can see that, you know, we're down, we're basically like, oh no, that's embarrassing. Like, yeah, we can hear you, but you you really can't. Just be honest with us. I saved all this to having up just like I played my governor in an electional video in the boys states. You know, governor is like a ball of the community itself. And I say I'm the governor as why because that's what I gotta have to survive. You gotta have a certain slight, you gotta have a certain demeanor, you gotta have a certain thing about you that makes you unique. And don't be scared to be unique when you feel like the world's against you, cause obviously you're not alone and I hope through this podcast you will notice that as I share my own life experiences and my own struggles in these podcast episodes. I hope you notice that I try to lead by example, and I really hope y'all enjoyed my podcast with JD Ross, because that's what I try to do. I try to educate people, and I hope to do that through this podcast as well, as well as having real conversations, and yes, I'm gonna share my opinions, but I'm also gonna try to share the other side too. And a lot of my episodes.