“6.1 million children in the United States have parents with disabilities.”
In a short video compiled by Brittany Peterson, three families, each with one or more parent with a disability, discuss their struggles of acceptance, especially in the eyes of the general public.
Karen, a mom with a spinal disorder, and her husband Kevin, who contracted HIV from a blood transfusion, adopted their daughter Domenica who has Apert syndrome. “When I was growing up, neither one of my parents had a disability,” shares Karen. “So you don’t have those role models out there in your immediate family.” But that’s not the case with this family. “She looks different, and I look different,” says Karen about her daughter and herself. And Domenica is always watching her father treat his symptoms with medication – it’s just a part of life. When asked about her parents, Dominica simply said, “Okay, I love them!”
Another family, where the mother has cerebral palsy, discusses the difficulty they encountered in finding information about having CP and having a baby. “There was nothing out there,” she says. What they did find, however, was negativity from professionals and the general public. But that didn’t deter them. “I became more determined to make it work,” says the mother.
Another couple, both with cerebral palsy, discusses negative reactions they receive from the public in just doing everyday things like grocery shopping. “It doesn’t really come as a surprise,” says the father, who is also a wheelchair user. “Those are generally the reactions we have dealt with all our years of life.”
Parenting comes in all different sizes, shapes, and forms. Watch and share the video below to help raise support for parents with disabilities.