PARTNERS PODCAST JUNE 2007 - Jayne Chase

I'm Patrick Connally. People living with disabilities are part of 
almost every family in America today. 70% of us will be living 
with a disabling condition at some point in our lives.  

This last month I was privileged to interview four people who are 
a part of the disability community who are changing our world. 
These people have all been involved in some way or impacted by 
Partners in Policymaking. 

Janye Chase talks about being a parent of a child with 
disabilities and how Partners changed her perception
of being a parent and how she got a great son out of it, who's an 
advocate and a national leader in disability, meeting all kinds 
of important people.


Jayne Chase:
  
There were adults at this conference with autism and I would go 
and sit and observe them at night in the lobby and listen to them 
talk as if I were sitting at the seat of, you know, great scholars, 
thinking that that's how my son would be when he grew up. So 
therefore I wanted to learn all I could learn about what it was to 
be an adult with autism, never knowing that my son, you know, was 
my son, and he may or may not be anything like the people there, 
he's an individual.  

I guess I had that old pity feeling for people with disabilities 
before Partners. 

I just didn't know what to do or how to act. Before that first 
session was over, he and I were interacting and that's the beauty 
of Partners. I don't know how it happens, but you're with people 
that you've never been around and then you become very comfortable.

It's not being around people, it's being "with" people. 

I do know, it's because we were never "with". When I was a kid I 
was never "with" and I think that being "with" is the key. 

It sound so hokey and artificial sometimes but just to get to know 
people. I got to know my son and people say "Well, what did you do 
with your son? How does he do the things he does?" and I said 
"Because I started listening to him, and getting to know him as an 
individual". He taught me what supports he needs to participate in 
community, when he was a kid, when I started listening to him. All 
that old silly stuff about people with autism have to be taught to 
look you in the face and look you in the eyes, and what are those 
other things, have social skills, whatever that is, all those 
artificial words we use that separate us from community. 

You know I'd go to conferences on autism and they had all these 
toys, and you're made to believe that you had to buy toys for 
your kid if he has autism, at that there -- you can't just go 
to Walmart or a toy store and buy toys; you've got to buy 
special toys. 

My other children are my son and daughter and why would they have 
to go to a workshop and know how to be a sibling to him anymore 
than he would have to go to a workshop to learn how to be a 
sibling to them? 

Spiritual to me is so different from religious, so I use the 
word spiritual sometimes to describe my Partners experience, 
because it was truly, as Oprah Winfrey says, my "ahh haa" moment. 

Patrick Connally: Thank you very much for listening. This show was 
produced by Disability Rights Enforcement Education Services, 
helping you help others, and funded and co produced by the 
Minnesota Governor's Council on Developmental Disabilities. And 
we'd like to thank KBT Studio in San Anselmo for making us look 
good on audio. Thank you very much.