Spread the Word to End the Word

In High School, I was a peer tutor and had the chance to work with handicap teenagers. While involved in this program, I was pushed to join a club that I had never heard of. When I found out more about the club, I immediately joined. (and got a free t-shirt)

The club was called "Spread the Word to End the Word." The "word" refers to the "r" word aka retarded. I have always disliked when others use this word and don't use it myself. I pledged not to use this word and you can too here:
http://www.r-word.org

Fast forward to my college years and I am enrolled in a special education course. I was assigned to teach the class (with 2 other people) one of the chapters from the book. My group happened to get the chapter that talks about the use of the "r" word and how offensive it is. I immediately told my group about my High-School experience and the club I joined. Ironically, a girl in my group owns a t-shirt company and we decided to make the entire class matching t-shirts. (We used my High-School shirt as a template)We only let the class take a shirt if they pledged to not use the "r" word. The whole class took a shirt. Maybe we started a revolution...

In my special education class we have had to experience a lot of challenges that others face. For instance, we were assigned to ride in a wheel-chair for 4 hours. This might sound easy, but trust me, it isn't. There were certain things we had to do while in the wheelchair, so unfortunately I couldn't just take a 4 hour nap and be done. 

The hardest thing for me to do in the wheelchair was go to the bathroom. How can I be expected to hold the door open while wheeling myself in and making it over a huge bump on the ground? I struggled to even get in the bathroom for nearly 5 minutes. (Luckily nobody was nearby to see me.) Once I finally made it into the bathroom, I immediately had to make a sharp turn. This didn't go well. I may or may not have left my mark on the wall corner in the bathroom.

After washing my hands,I realized that I was in trouble. How could I possibly keep my dripping-wet hands clean while wheeling to the paper towels? After this wheelchair experience, I woke up the next day EXTRAORDINARILY sore.


Another assignment I completed was wearing various masks over a 4-hour period to experience what it is like to be visually impaired. This was NOT fun. I had a headache for the entire 4 hours and when I was walking back after the 4 hours to return my face-masks, I nearly fell down the stairs because I couldn't see. I might add that my eyes were in so much pain that they were watering. 

The assignment I probably struggled with the most was talking with a speech impediment. There were very specific instructions for this assignment and as I approached the Wal-Mart worker, I was nervous. I could not use the letters l or n when talking. I asked the worker if they have the movie, "Wegawy Bwonde." (Legally Blonde) He gave me a very funny look, but did look it up for me. In the meantime, Andrew was watching from nearby and could not contain himself. I then laughed as well because I felt silly, but only when the worker had his back turned to me. I went all the way to Wal-Mart for this experience, so I would never have to see the person I talked to again. It was humiliating. 

There are so many things to be grateful for. Speech, working legs, eye-sight, etc. What if these things were taken away?

My challenge to you: think twice before using the "r" word next time you're tempted.