VIDEO TRANSCRIPT: Syracuse residents reflect on International Day of Persons with Disabilities
Alex Burstein: As the calendar flips to December in Syracuse, a lot of important holidays may come to mind. But maybe not International Day of Persons with Disabilities, celebrated today, Dec. 3.
Susan Gray: So to get out and be amongst your peers and be able to socialize with them at events are very, very important.
Burstein: Meet Susan Gray, the Blind Services Coordinator at Aurora of Central New York.
Gray: Not having an agency like this and the Commission for the Blind to help us, which is the state agency that we contact with, that would be a huge, huge void in the lives of people with vision loss.
Burstein: She helps the blind community of New York with everything from education to jobs. Oh, and she’s also legally blind.
Gray: Apologies, that’s my screen reader you’re hearing.
Burstein: Now you may notice, Gray’s not’s in Syracuse. She in North Carolina for the winter. Snow can be dangerous for the disabled community, and instead, she spreads her message of accessibility from afar.
Gray: I am on the core advisory group with the emergency management for Onondaga County and we have some really great leaders that are invested in making sure that people are taken care of.
Burstein: That accessibility has grown across the nation thanks to laws over the past couple of decades and it’s even changed right here in Syracuse, where something as simple as getting on the bus has now become accessible.
Gray: Centro, they have put into place a service called “call a bus” and that is a ride share, door-to-door service for people with disabilities.
Burstein: It’s not all equal, though.
Benjamin Curtis: With people with disabilities, I just want people to know that people do and that they should be more respected and all of that.
Burstein: That’s Benjamin Curtis, a Syracuse native who has Asperger’s. Both him and gray know there’s misconceptions about the disabled community that just a little more education could help
Gray: For us to be seen first as people.
Curtis: That people can look the same on the outside but on the inside they might have a disability.
Burstein: And maybe by next December, there’ll be just a little more awareness. Alex Burstein, NCC News
SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) – It may not be the most popular holiday. But Dec. 3 marked a big day for some: International Day of Persons with Disabilities.
While there weren’t explicit events in the area for the event, multiple Syracuse residents with disablities reflected on living in Central New York with a disability.
Susan Gray is the Blind Services Coordinator at Aurora of Central New York. As someone who is legally blind herself, she knows the important of events and groups for people with disablities.
“To get out and be amongst your peers and be able to socialize with them at events is very, very important,” Gray said.
In her job, Gray helps people who are blind with jobs and education.
“Not having an agency like this and the Commission for the Blind to help us, which is the state agency that we contact with, that would be a huge, huge void in the lives of people with vision loss,” Gray said.
Gray spends her winters in North Carolina to avoid the snow. But she still works to spreads her message.
“I am on the core advisory group with the emergency management for Onondaga County and we have some really great leaders that are invested in making sure that people are taken care of,” Gray said.
Groups like that have helped expand programs for people with disablities in the area, such as transportation.
“Centro has put into place a service called ‘call a bus,’ and that is a ride share, door-to-door service for people with disabilities.”
Even with these improvements, there’s room to grow, according to Benjamin Curtis, who lives in Syracuse and has Asperger’s syndrome.
“With people with disabilities, I just want people to know that people do and that they should be more respected and all of that,” Curtis said.
Both him and Gray have wishes for how the disablity community would be percieved by all.
“For us to be seen first as people,” Gray said.
“(That everyone knows) that people can look the same on the outside, but on the inside they might have a disablity,” Curtis said.