In living my life with a physical disability, I’ve faced many limitations. My disability really was never one of those, in spite of what people think. Sure, there are certainly parts of my disability that aren’t exactly pleasant, but the biggest limitations have come from the society around me. For example, people often ask me about my power chair, and comment on how limiting it must be, but it’s actually the opposite. It  served me well enough to survive college at Berkeley, complete internships in DC, and has opened up my world. What really are limiting are the constant issues that arise due to barriers created by society and many people’s perception  about what it means to be “disabled.”

Speaking of issues, while I was lucky enough to get paid as an AAPD intern in DC during my first internship, the restrictions put on myself and other people with disabilities on SSI (which we use to receive critical personal care that ensure we can do what we want with our lives), made receiving that payment a real challenge. Luckily, I had a good friend who introduced me to people who knew how to apply for exemptions of income made while on SSI. Without those friends, though, I might have endangered my SSI, and personal care.

I grew up with a very supportive family and friends, who helped me expand my horizons and do what I wanted, as everyone should. Yes, they understood my disability and its impact on my life, but they also understand the power of expectations and goal setting. Everytime someone stared or demeaned me, my friends and family were always there with words of support. When someone doubted my intelligence,  and tried to impede my educational progress because of my disability, my family and friends helped me advocate for myself and come up with ways to succeed. It was through their continuous efforts to support me that I became interested in advocacy, and now try to support others.

When it came to finding jobs and internships, I have a great vocational rehab counselor, who has made it possible for me to afford school. She also helped me find my AAPD internship, and provided me with financial support for my second internship in DC. I’m thinking that by now your seeing a pattern. I was able to disable my limitations with the help of my relationships. The limitations that I faced were largely created by how people viewed me and others with disabilities, but with a support network of my own, I was able to break those limitations. Relationships are my key to disabling my limits.

Hamza Jaka is a recent graduate of the University of California-Berkeley with a B.A in Linguistics. As a person with a disability, more specifically cerebral palsy, hamza has a passion for disability advocacy; He’s been a local, state, national and international disability advocate since his teens. He’s currently prepping for the LSAT and hopes to go to law school