Inspiration
3 Exceptional Stories of TED Speakers With Special Needs
Three inspiring Ted Talks from people who despite being specially-abled, kept up with their dreams and found new ways to move ahead in life.
Disabilities can cause someone to lose hope in the midst of this chaotic world, where the competition among the ones who have been blessed with natural abilities is also heartless. To achieve one’s dream with limited capabilities is not an easy job and yet we see how specially-abled people make it to the world stage by the sheer force of their will. These inspiring stories tell us how practising Inclusion in schools and workplaces can give people with special needs a chance to prove their calibre and add slur to society.
ScooNews, after listening to many such Ted Talks by people with special needs, brings to you the story of three individuals, who did not let their dreams checked by their disabilities.
ROSIE KING – Writer, Public Speaker
Rosie King is a young autistic woman, who talks about her condition and how she turned it into an asset.
She lays stress on the stereotypes forced upon autistic people on how they are associated with math and science and hardly with creative work. She talks about her brother who is autistic and non-verbal but on the other hand, how she loves to talk even being autistic.
Rosie also enlightens the viewers about how Autism enhances her imagination and she finds it as an ability rather than a disability. As a child, she found it hard to keep up with the lessons in her schools as she would find it boring and will escape to a parallel imaginative world. She shares how she had a hard time at school because of her condition and how her imagination sometimes affected her behavior.
The stigma of being autistic also made her classmates maintain a distance and yet she found the real ones who truly cared for her.
She questions the definition of normal and says that being normal was never a compliment and being different is being unique and extraordinary.
In the talk, Rosie shares her achievements about how even after being Autistic, she has presented documentaries to the BBC that she is in the middle of writing a book, she talking to a large audience at TED and how she found a way to communicate with her siblings.
She ends the talk by asking a question to the audience, “If we can get inside the person’s mind, Autistic or normal, instead of punishing anything that strives from normal, why not celebrate uniqueness and cheer every time someone unleashes their imagination”.
Watch the full video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQ95xlZeHo8&t=9s
WANDA DIAZ-MERCED – Astronomer
Wanda Diaz-Merced is one of the most prominent Astronomers working in the field. Astronomy is a common scientific discipline with a lot of people around the globe engage in it. What sets Wanda apart from other colleagues is that she is blind.
In her inspiring TED Talks, she reveals how she lost her sight due to a prolonged illness at the very beginning of her career and it disabled her to witness the wonders of celestial events through dedicated Gamma-Ray Light Curve to interpret the changes in light intensity.
She yearned to work again in the field and soon found out the way to do so by converting the light curve into a sound.
Her disability did not stop her from following her passion as she could do with sound, what her colleagues were doing visually.
A special thanks was bestowed upon the government of South Africa for the support that she received from them.
Wanda believes that access to information is everybody’s right and that disabilities should not stand as a roadblock for anyone who wishes to make a change. She remarks, “Information access empowers us to flourish. It gives us equal opportunity to display our talents and choose what we want to do with our lives based on interest and not potential barriers.”
Wanda has been working since then to make her scientific career a possibility for fellow differently-abled people. “I think that science is for everyone, it belongs to the people and it has to be available to everyone because we are all-natural explorers,” says Wanda
You can watch the full video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hY9QSdaReY
PHIL HANSEN – Artist
In this unique Ted Talk, Phil Hansen takes you through his journey of artistic endeavors. While in an art school, he was diagnosed with a neurological issue that made his hands shake continuously.
He left the art school post-detection and gave up his hope of being an artist only to come back after three years. His doctor advised him to adopt his disability and he did so by adapting his art to suit his ability.
In the process of embracing his limitation, he became limitless and started creating art through unconventional methods. He shares how, after getting a job, he brought himself art supplies that he could not afford earlier which ultimately created options for him he was not ready to explore until then.
In order to enhance his creativity again, he turned to limited supplies to do more by using less. The story of Phil Hansen is a philosophical journey of an artist that he lived in reality.
His concept of creating art through limitations was the turning point of his life and is enough to inspire anyone who faces such physical restrictions.
“Looking at the limitations, as a source of creativity changed the course of my life,” says Phil Hansen.
You can watch the full video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrZTho_o_is&t=24s
Image courtesy: remezcla.com