What does a truly accessible world look like

[Music]

[Music]

so when i was in college

i decided to join a gym and i was a

little nervous because i was afraid they

wouldn’t have enough equipment for my

upper body

and i decided to go on a tour of a local

gym with a very nice gentleman

and asked him if they had equipment

specifically for

arms well he looked at me and he said

yeah we got some stuff for arms

but you don’t even have to do your arms

you could do a full

leg day well of course i’m sitting there

thinking

um should i tell him well the very

non-confrontational side of me decided

not to say anything

so i ended up spending the next 30

minutes doing a tour of the

full spectrum of leg presses after which

he looked at me and said

your legs are going to get nice and

beefy just you wait

well i’m still waiting but the problem

is

so many people are scared to ask those

with disabilities

what exactly they’re able to do or how

exactly

they’re able to help them because they

don’t want to say the wrong thing

and the problem is this causes so many

misconceptions

and these small misconceptions compound

into large-scale societal issues

that can drastically affect the lives of

millions with disabilities

so i’m here today to show a major

insight that i have had through my

journey

and how i believe it can create a more

inclusive future for us all

now the crazy thing is i didn’t really

even think about the concept of

disability

for most of my childhood and so the

first time that i did think about it

is very vivid in my mind i was watching

a movie

late at night with my younger sister and

it was about this little boy

in a wheelchair and she fell asleep

halfway through the movie

but i stayed up awake that night

thinking about this little boy and

what he must be going through and i

thought to myself wow

that must suck

i am so glad that’s not me well

exactly one week later to the day

my mom and i were in a car accident and

a week after the accident i woke up in a

hospital

from a coma and had no idea where i was

i couldn’t move my legs and i was

absolutely

terrified and a few days later in the

icu

after finding out that my injury was

permanent

i looked at my mom and i said mommy i’m

not madeline anymore

and it’s like my 10 year old self

had this very strong sense that the loss

of part of my body

meant a loss of my sense of self and

even at such a young

age i felt an instinct that i was

no longer worthy to fit into the tribe

anymore

that i didn’t belong so let me ask you

this

if you were to be in an accident tonight

and become paralyzed

what would be your biggest fear going

back into your life

the obvious thing to say would be a loss

of freedom of

movement or the weight of the physical

barriers around you

but nobody prepares you for the feeling

of going back to school

and watching all of your classmates play

on the playground

while you sit on the sidelines or being

in a job interview and having the

manager tell you that they can’t hire

you

because you can’t physically do the job

or

even being on a date and having an

accident in the guy’s car

and being so humiliated that you fake

spill a drink on yourself just so you

can avoid

any super awkward first day explanations

not that this happened to me or anything

but the core of these experiences

mimics the feeling i had after waking up

in the hospital the feeling of shame the

feeling

of not belonging anymore i recently

asked the same question i asked you to

my social media

network about what would you do if you

became paralyzed what would be afraid of

and some of the answers truly surprised

me people said things like

being afraid of losing friends and

family because of the disability

what would my purpose in life be with my

career and life

changing so drastically people seeing me

as disabled and that i can’t do anything

that no one would love me who would want

to be in a relationship with someone who

represented such a huge responsibility

after reading these comments i became a

little curious so i went to my boyfriend

and i asked him

the same question and keep in mind we

have been together for three years so

he knows everything about what it’s like

to be paralyzed

but he looked at me and he said i’d be

afraid that you leave me

and of course i was like wait

wait a second you would be afraid that i

would leave you

if you were paralyzed and he said yes

i wouldn’t be able to take care of you

the same and that would absolutely

kill me when i asked this question

i expected people to focus on the

physical and environmental

challenges of using a wheelchair but

what i didn’t expect was for people to

so

deeply empathize with this sense of

shame

of not fitting back to your community

and the

interesting thing is that

i felt this sense of shame was validated

in my life when i went back into my

community

there were members of my family who said

that they didn’t feel comfortable

being around me anymore because of my

injury

when i went back to my private school

they

said that they didn’t feel comfortable

having me there as a student anymore

because of the challenges that i posed

we even went back to church and

they brought me up to the front and took

my hands

and told me if i had enough faith i’d be

able to stand

well as you can probably imagine i was

not

able to stand and so they said

that my injury must be a punishment from

god

and looking back now i can clearly see

that if these people are able to say

things like that to us

a young girl who’s recently injured then

they’re probably going through some

pretty dark things in their own life

but i didn’t know that at the time i

didn’t know that their reaction

was based on the fear of the different

and unknown

i thought that i was the problem and so

it was it was like that i was in this

perfect

bubble and i had no idea that my

acceptance into this bubble was so

conditional

and that the second i became flawed the

bubble popped

now as i grew older and became more

independent

i decided i was going to escape not only

the physical barriers around me but the

attitudinal ones

i wanted to find what it took to achieve

true accessibility in society

not just with ramps and elevators but

with the things that you can’t measure

a place where you’re free from the shame

of being different

and so it became my mission that i was

going to prove to myself and to everyone

around me

that i was worthy of acceptance

and that i didn’t have to be ashamed so

one of my first adventures

was flying to germany and of course on

this first big step outside of my

comfort zone

they briefly misplaced my wheelchair and

i can tell you there is no more

terrifying prospect

than flying to a foreign country for the

first time

completely alone well cheerless i also

decided to climb the mountain beside

mount rushmore

i had met this amazing park ranger and

his wife who brought me into their home

they trained me on a ranger climbing

course and helped me to ascend

the 200-foot mountainside i even decided

to go swimming with sharks

thought it was going to be in a cage but

they took us out in the middle of the

ocean

pushed us out of the boat and no cage

was offered so

when we were training for the sharks

when they said

not to kick our legs too much or else

the sharks might think we’re seals

and i was like yes i got this well

there was still one shark that was quite

interested in me and before i knew it i

looked down

and it was jutting up toward me mouth

open

rows of teeth and all i could think of

in that moment was

please just go for the legs go for the

legs

luckily it didn’t come to that but i

was able to continue on into pageantry

and i can assure you

it was so much scarier than the shark

thing but

i was continuing this goal of

challenging the question

of belonging could someone like me

with a very obvious physical disability

fit in in a part of society that tends

to so harshly judge people for their

physical form

well after years of pushing boundaries

and testing my limits

i came to a very surprising realization

that there are times in my life when i

am dependent on others

there are times in my life when i’m

completely independent

but it wasn’t necessarily the

independent times

when that shame went away it was the

times when i was able to work

interdependently with others

it was when i was in germany and my

classmates helped me to create a map

of all the accessible bathrooms in the

town so that i was able to go

on my own but when there were times when

my body was ready for immediate action

they were always right there

ready to carry me and it was the time

when i worked with the park rangers

they had never trained a paraplegic for

that kind of climb before

but together we worked out tricks for me

to be able to use my arms instead of my

legs to work around the sharp

rocks that i would encounter on my climb

and it was the time in pageantry

when i was the first girl in a

wheelchair to ever make

top five in a miss usa state pageant

and was able to work with people around

the country and around the world

to create campaigns to redefine

traditional beauty standards

and after this awareness of

what interdependence can do i was

getting so excited but

i realized that we don’t necessarily

live in a society

that focuses on interdependence for

people with disabilities

there are options for people to become

dependent

on our government on caregivers

and then there are also options for

people to become independent because

of incredible disability laws and

initiatives

but the problem is when you create a

society

that forces people with a limited

ability

to either perform at full capacity

or not perform at all you inevitably

create a system

that shames those who are different

because

if you force them to perform at full

capacity

the disability will at some point come

into play

and they’ll have an environment of

criticism and shame

but if you don’t allow them to perform

at all

they’ll feel like they’re not

contributing to society and that they

have no purpose in life

but when you’re able to use this tool of

interdependence

that fear and shame of being different

begin to melt

away and interdependence at its core is

when two or more people are able to work

together

to create the best outcome possible

with all of the assets at hand and if

we’re able to use this

tool on a national scale it could

drastically affect the way

that our society sees people with

disabilities

and help people with disabilities see

themselves

employers wouldn’t think of undue

hardship when hiring those with

disabilities

but instead we think about the amazing

assets that they could bring

to their company businesses wouldn’t be

afraid

to create customized services for those

with disabilities because they would

realize they could have a solution based

mindset

instead of simply saying there’s nothing

we could do

governments would rethink their policies

for those with disabilities

because they realize that they shouldn’t

punish

those who want to work to the extent of

their

ability even if they can’t work full

time

and people people would begin to

destigmatize those who are different

because they would realize

that we all have disabilities we all

have weaknesses

and this journey of life is not meant to

be walked

or wheeled alone that we need to come

together

to carry each other’s burdens and to

help build each other up to be the best

we can be through our weaknesses today

marks the 17-year anniversary of my car

accident

and i wanted to give this talk not only

to honor my journey

and my transformation but to also show

that my challenges can be used for

something good

and that we can create a transformation

in society

to where we can look at all humans no

matter how they are packaged

as equal members of society

and that our abilities together

can be so much more powerful than they

could ever be apart

you