What’s Bugging you
Tune in to "What's Bugging You?"—the podcast where people with disabilities share real-life stories, savvy tips, and powerful advocacy strategies for overcoming life's challenges. If you are facing barriers and have a disability, tune in to learn how to combat what’s bugging you.
What’s Bugging you
Navigating Life with Confidence: Tips, Tricks, and Truths
In this episode of What’s Bugging You?, people with disabilities get real about the tips, tricks, and tools they use to navigate life their way. From everyday accommodations to unexpected travel hacks, our guests share how they face challenges head-on—living independently and confidently on their own terms.
We talk about how Independent Living Skills (ILS) training supports people in building those tools, how to ask for what you need, and how adjusting to difficult situations can become a personal superpower. You’ll also hear stories about the weirdest things people have assumed about disability—and how our guests respond with grace, humor, and strength.
This conversation is full of lived experience, practical advice, and uplifting moments that prove: there’s no one “right” way to live—only the way that works for you.
This is the What's Bugging You podcast, where people with disabilities are unique because navigating life is difficult. In this episode, we'll be explaining the tips and tricks and how people with disabilities navigate life. Stay tuned. This episode is going to be buzzing awesome.
SPEAKER_03:Thank you for joining the Independence Center podcast today. Today, the podcast is presented to you by the ECI staff and participants on What's Bugging You. The Independence Center is a nonprofit organization. We serve the community with people who have a disability. For more information, you can read the Independence Center on our website and our Facebook page at www.ende.org. P-E-N-D-E-N-C-E dot org or you can go on our Facebook page at Independence. Topic for episode three, tips and tricks for how people with disability navigate life. Question number one, where does your go-to find tips and tricks to navigate as an individual with a disability?
SPEAKER_05:Well, my go-to to navigate life, I guess one of the Biggest ones that I rely on is as far as handling personal business, like going to the bank, grocery shopping, stuff like that. I try to designate certain places. Like I have one Walmart I usually go to, one bank I usually go to, so that people get to know me. People, you know... know how to help me as someone that is blind and we both develop a mutual form of trust with one another.
SPEAKER_02:I learned how to do it because I think of ways to keep myself in a positive attitude.
SPEAKER_00:So my go-to tips and tricks, it's a mix of the internet specifically, like specifically Google and Facebook groups where I can learn about specifically in Facebook groups about like about about ways other autistic people, one of my main disabilities is autism, to navigate a society in which the social rules and expectations are not exactly accessible to us. And then for one of my other disabilities, diabetes, I talk to family members and even co-workers who also have diabetes. And I even have an endocrinologist who has diabetes for tips and tricks on navigating that too. And family and friends.
SPEAKER_04:I can... rely on the things that I have been taught. When I first got the amputation, I didn't know anything about anything. Didn't know how to get around. Hadn't ever been in a wheelchair on purpose or by mistake. And so... I did learn for three months how to get around in a wheelchair without a prosthetic. Then I got my first prosthetic, took my first steps, and learned over years how to be able to walk Maybe not at a big distance, but I can get myself from say like the bed to the chair and then the chair to the bathroom.
SPEAKER_03:Question number two. How do you ask for accommodation when you are out?
SPEAKER_05:Can you please assist me with what I need help with?
SPEAKER_04:I all ahead. I'm part of a lunch group that goes to various places around town every two or three weeks and what I generally do is call like a day or two ahead before I book my ride and I ask whoever Do you have rails in the bathroom? And sometimes, whoever it is, if it's a manager, maybe I ask if you're ADA compliant. If it's one of the kids that answers the phone, they're not going to know what that means. And so I have to kind of tailor it down to something that maybe they can grasp. But definitely call ahead anywhere.
SPEAKER_02:The accommodations that I ask for is when I go to a restaurant, I call ahead to see if it's accommodation for my wheelchair.
SPEAKER_05:Well, for me, when I'm out and about, say, for instance, if I go in a grocery store and need help, if it's an unfamiliar store that I've never been in, I'll typically ask for a manager. And then I'll ask the manager if there's somebody that can assist me in shopping. If I go to a restaurant, I'll ask. call ahead if it's me and some other friends that may be blind and I'll let them know I'm coming in and we may need help. Or if I'm by myself, I'll ask the waitress to read the menu or I'll look at the menu before I go. Being blind, technology has definitely developed and is definitely on our side. So there's many different apps and sites that you can pull up and look at a menu and your phone's accessibility settings can read it out to you.
SPEAKER_03:Number three. Is there a time that you had to use some tips or tricks you have learned to remain safe during traveling or to complete daily things?
SPEAKER_05:When I'm out and about, some things that I was taught to remain safe is to always keep my ears open. Never walk around with earbuds in my ears because When you can't see, your ears are your eyes. You have to hear who's walking beside you, who's walking behind you, who's even in front of you. You have to hear the conversations around you. And also I learned how to be careful with my money. I never carry over a specific denomination And I make sure that my money is in each individual place that it belongs in. And also, I always try to be careful by learning how to trust my instincts in people. Being aware and staying focused.
SPEAKER_03:And number four. What is the strangest thing someone has asked you about your ability to get things done?
SPEAKER_05:I'm not able to manage stuff with my disability being the way it is.
SPEAKER_02:Strangest thing, people ask me, how do I cook? And I tell them that I cook with an Instapot.
SPEAKER_05:Well, one of the strange, I think the strangest question I've ever gotten in my whole life is I was in high school and a teacher came up to me in the lunchroom one morning. I was going through the breakfast line and I guess she saw me turn the wrong way or bump into somebody and and um she came up to help me because i think it was maybe the first week or school or so and for some reason she had introduced me to another student that she know or something like that but out of the blue um once the other student had walked off she turned to me and asked me um how do you know a male from a female? And I was like, well, for me, I usually go by the voice. Maybe if I shake their hands, I might go by maybe how their hands feel, but typically I go by the voice. And she was like, oh, because I always thought that blind people had like a radar that could detect body temperature in men or women. And I was like, what? And that was the weirdest question I've had in my whole life.
SPEAKER_03:Question number five. How has ECI or independent living skills training helped you with understanding how to use tips and tricks to live life independently?
SPEAKER_05:ECI has... been so intricate to me since I've grown up and lived on my own. I've learned about my rights with social security, about working, how much I'm able to make and collect social security. I've learned so much about housing laws with social security and also ADA laws. to strive and to
SPEAKER_00:stay stronger. So being a former youth participant of ECI, it's changed my life for the better in a lot of ways. More specifically, when I remember when I first started coming here back in 2005 as a participant, I found out about some opportunities that turned out to be also incredible and life-changing. The independent living coordinator I had at the time, like time, he gave me information about what was the youth leadership forum back then, but now the Youth Leadership Academy. Going to that changed my life because I got to in addition to going to a monthly youth group that they were having here at the time, like at the time, which is not like the youth group that we have now, obviously, I, like I got, it was an opportunity for me to meet and connect with other high school students with disabilities with similar, like with goals similar to mine of wanting to, aim a little bit higher and and and knowing and being able to expect more than than oh i'm gonna i'm gonna push shopping carts at kroger not that there's anything wrong with that but knowing like but like who also know like i can do i don't have to just push shopping carts at kroger if that's not what i want to do
SPEAKER_02:I learned from ECR that it's a right to be okay with your disability.
SPEAKER_03:Question number six. Has there ever been a time where your ability to adjust to a difficult situation has now become a superpower for you?
SPEAKER_00:like so like so just in time for like for autism acceptance month one of the ways that so throughout my life I have gone through multiple I call it moderate to major life transitions such as I've experienced one like I've experienced one family member who I'm close to having to go to the hospital multiple times, and multiple jobs that I've had throughout my life as an adult after graduating high school involving multiple moderate to major changes in job duties. While these changes can be challenging for anyone, Thinking of my autism as a microscope in that sense, it can sometimes magnify those challenges with those moderate to major life changes to make it seem a thousand times bigger. But the things I've learned from that are, one, all of us need support in navigating autism. those moderate to major life changes. And that even includes people without disabilities because those are moderate to major life challenges and changes for everybody. And now I also try to tell myself, though some days it's definitely easier said than done, that my resiliency does not change and that And that no matter what happens, I can do hard things. Well, for me,
SPEAKER_05:learning to adapt to the world and the people in it, I feel like having a disability does give me somewhat of a leverage or a superpower, for lack of a better term, because Like I like to describe it, when you can't physically see the world around you and you have to use your other senses as your eyes, it gives you a deeper vision. of the world because you have to tap into things that other people that use their eyes to see the world might not tap into. How things smell, how people voices sound depending on their emotions or thoughts. You might have to tap into different sounds around you that other people may not hear to let you know what's close by or what's coming to you, stuff like that. I like to explain to people.
SPEAKER_02:The superpower is I have to be me.
SPEAKER_03:This is the exit part introducing a short recording from April and Tamika. This episode is playing how people with disability use tips and tricks to navigate the difficult parts of life, accommodating our heart and mind and how we navigate life. So we include some bonus content that display the impact that accommodating help on our continuous journey towards living independent lives.
SPEAKER_02:The accommodation that I had was when I went to the bank and I needed them to hold the money to order down so I could write it. And they were shocked that I could do it.
SPEAKER_05:For me, I can say that the importance of accommodations are to someone with a disability, it gives them a sense of independence, a sense of normalcy. It gives me a feeling of when I can just live my life and do everything I need to do well. I feel like I can do anything. People just want to feel accept it people just want to feel seen and when i walk into a business or my job or any type of establishment that i know is willing to give me accommodations or already have them set in place for anybody with any type of disability, I feel like me and my community has been heard and seen and accepted.
SPEAKER_01:The What's Bugging You podcast would like to thank you for joining us for this episode, and we would like to let you know that people with disabilities are people first, and we're buzzing awesome.