[Music]
One out of five people in the United
States has a disability. Most
disabilities are hidden. What we find is
that people that have not experienced
disabilities in their own life
feel that they need to
um stay away as much as they can
because of the uncomfortable, unfamiliar.
What we're looking to do is make people
more familiar with with the concept of
disabilities. There's been a a big push
nationally um to create some resources
to to help organizations that use
volunteers understand um and and be able
to have some tools to um to be inclusive
to let everybody be able to come and
volunteer and use whatever talents he or
she has.
What people in need
should understand is that if
there's assistance,
it's about helping, not about
the person. It's about the process. It's
about the hope that things will get
better or easier for those in need,
despite whatever they are that are the
people who are helping out. Uh just as
you have disabled individuals building
houses for disabled individuals, how much
better can that be? It's important about
giving and taking both ways not about
the person the disability. Whatever it is
I'm doing uh to assist in terms of the
time that I that I give, I know that I
get back uh the gratitude, the thanks
from those who are in need and those who
are helped and that's enough for me, so
each experience is important. One of the
things we know about volunteering is
that the the coming together with the
community that it provides, that sense of
social connection, and the opportunity to
give back is so beneficial for everyone,
not just psychologically and spiritually,
but physically as well. People live
longer when they join with their
communities in activities like
volunteering. They are healthier, they
have less pain, they have less disability.
We're here we made it alive, beautiful,
sunny Hawaii, and I'm ready to pound, I'm
ready to hammer, and I'm ready to work. I
find that uh a lot of times people are
apprehensive uh approaching me and
talking to me because of my
disability. Uh I think people don't mean
to be. Sometimes people um will talk to
if I'm out with my wife they'll talk to
my wife instead of me and something just
uh happened to me uh when I was at the
airport uh getting getting ticketed. The
guy would never hand me back my tickets
he always handed them to my wife and
would always ask my wife questions about
me and I'm like "I'm right here I'm right
here I can hear you I know what you're
saying". You know I think we all get kind
of caught up in doing our own thing and
kind of step outside
and volunteer our time and you know give
back to the community. You know people
think maybe if you have a disability you
can't really contribute to the to the
volunteer movement or whatever it is, you
know? And I think it's important. I just
think it's really important to to
society that you know people with
disabilities are out there making a
difference in the world. I got pulled
over and the policeman instead of coming
up to my door like they usually do and
saying oh how do you drive and do you
have a license and wow Isn't that cool
instead he got on his speaker and said I
need to see your hands out the window
right now and when I
shouted I don't have any arms, he pulled
his gun out and I could see him in my
rearview mirror behind his door he was
ready to shoot. The one thing in the
world he was asking of me was the very
one thing that I could not comply
with as much as I wanted to. I think
anytime a person with a disability goes
out and lives their life unashamed and
unafraid, then they are in a sense giving
a message. I find that as people get
older in terms of social stigmas,
they're less uh willing
to understand diversity and differences
in people. Historically um there have
been misconceptions as any Civil Rights
Movement, people with disabilities
have, in large, been one of the last
frontiers that still exist. I think
because of the fear that people have the
that they're unfamiliar with certain
situations. The more familiar we are with
every aspect of life that seems to be
uncomfortable, then we become more
understanding and more
compassionate. When I was first asked to
help with Nancy, I kind of I was thinking
of what a blind person could really do.
If you ask them what they need to do a
job once you describe what that job is,
they will tell you what they need to do
it or if that's not a good match. Uh so
it's not it's not rocket science. You
need to deal directly with the person
you're trying to engage in a particular
task and they will tell you uh if they
need an accommodation. I was very nervous
I didn't know what to expect, uh I
had never hammered nails,
especially building a house and I
found that with with the guidance from
people who knew what was going on, they
could help line me up. Everybody was so
wonderful. Being able to work with
somebody with that disability has opened
my mind on what people with disabilities
can really do. Since I do a lot of work
in Corporate America, if they have someone
in their workforce that has a
disability, how should they treat them? My
response is: No differently than you
treat anybody else. People are are are
much more um alike than they are
different. When you look at somebody who
has a visible disability, you may have
preconceived ideas of what they will be
able to accomplish. What I would say is,
try to take those preconceived notions
away and look at the possibilities they
may bring. We can take disability and
turn it into possibility. Differences in
life doesn't mean
deficit, it just means different. If I
volunteer to help or to do something
it's because I want to be a part of the
solution or a part of the team or and
and I actually want to
help. When somebody
who doesn't know you very well,
hasn't lived in your skin for your
entire life sort of assumes that they
have a better idea of what you're
capable of than you do is a very common
misconception. Some people have made
assumptions when I do try to do do some
type of of work and they assume that
that maybe I'm not capable of doing that
because of my disability. The
straightforward questions are always the
best way, then you can kind of take away
as much awkwardness as possible.
Accommodating volunteers with
disabilities um you usually means just
thinking a little bit more creatively
about the tasks that need to be done.
Approach the volunteers the way you
would approach any volunteer saying this
is what we need to be done um how do you
think you could do that? If we can be
open to um suggestions for other ways
something can be done then people can
come up with um amazingly creative and
effective solutions. We hope um people
will realize when they're outreaching to
to people to volunteer in their programs
is to remember
maybe not even the word
remember, but to think about outreaching
to volunteers with disabilities in any
of their programs. It is disappointing if
somebody says "I don't think you should
do that. I don't think you can do this or
that". For example,
to assume that a person who uses
a wheelchair could only do
a job on a computer is just false, and
and to assume that I would be a
professional soccer player instead of
guitar player
is is just it's just a false assumption.
We we can't judge a book by its cover. We
shouldn't pick our dreams based on what
a perceived limitation is. We should
decide what we want to do and then find
a way to do it, and that goes I think
across the board for all of us.
We need to open
up our perceptions a little bit more.
[Music]
You walk on by in high to rise. Sympathize
but you don't know who I am. Who are
you? Where do you come from and where do
you go. And if I send an
invitation to my world, would you come
and stay? And if I had a chance to sing
my song, this is what I'd say.
We are more the
same then you may think, yeah you and me
we are the same. Does anybody really have
to take the blame?
We are the same. We are more the same
than you may think, said you and me we
are the same and it's a shame to be
ashamed. You hide your head, don't hide
your heart. You turn it off so you don't
fall apart. When you see that man walk by,
got his whole life in a shopping cart so
you side, you don't
cry. Then you wonder why you're so alone.
We are more the same than you may think,
yeah you and me we are the same.
It doesn't anybody
have to take the blame, no, we are
the same. We are more the same you
may think, said
you me we are the same. It's a shame
to be ashamed.
I don't want you to look the other way,
fumble around thinking of what to
say. Wouldn't want to be anybody else and
I'm okay with myself.
Cuz we are more the same
then you may think [Music]
[scatting]