As Intern, Catherine Hein provides important insight to the organization on accessibility issues and programming. Catherine shares in her own words the importance of working with IMPART Alliance. This work is especially important to me professionally and personally. I was born with cerebral palsy and in my case, it affects all four of my limbs. This means that have always and will always need help with activities of daily living. From the time that I was young, I knew I wanted to help other people like me. When I was eighteen, I was able to qualify for assistance for a paid direct care worker. I thought that this would finally enable me to have the same experiences as my able-bodied peers. Most agencies and companies say my needs are far too complex before they even meet me. People have this misconception that being a direct care worker means you are just going to go to a client’s house to play cards and chat. I have had people coming into my home from agencies and they offer to play cards with me. I have also had people come to my home and not know how physical the work is to care for me, and they decline to do work with me – sometimes because of their own health issues. Typically, they say something like I did not know you were in a wheelchair, or they say that they thought I needed to get out of the house. I have always believed that every person deserves quality care regardless of the level of the person’s needs, diagnosis, or disability. So many people are struggling to find and maintain care for themselves and their loved ones. For those of us who need care for everything – care is as essential to us as breathing. All that I have wanted as a person with a disability is to have the same opportunities as everyone else. Without care – people who need care due to aging, medical conditions, chronic illnesses and/or disabilities – cannot live a normal life with all the joy happiness, love, heartache anger sadness and freedom most people take for granted. The need for care is never going to go away so I will spend as much of my life as I can trying to level the playing field and renovate broken systems so that people who need care can I have the same opportunities people that do not and can be just as productive in society as able-bodied individuals.
