Interruptions (1981)

[Music] March 31st 1980 susan burns wife mother working woman joined her morning carpool at 7:00 a.m. halfway to work in the middle of rush-hour traffic susan burns life was interrupted forever a tire falls for a truck bounces bounces again and through the window of her car Susan never knew what hit her there are no disabled people only people who have a disability people whose lives have been interrupted this is the story of their courage and of the employers who saw the potential of the person activist pneumonia a constant gun battle for my life I woke up and and I realized hey I can't let my orange dye keep in mine like it's a dream wake up and I never did wake up from that dream it was fact I couldn't move my hands or my legs I remember when the kids came in the first time and I could see the sadness and the loneliness in their faces and the one thing that I wanted the most is being a mother so good take care of business all right my husband and I are getting a divorce now and it happened especially my spinal cord injury when he when he told me it was just one more thing that I had to overcome and I always kept saying why is there one more thing right away had to go through one more heartache isn't this enough being a c5 quad I don't have these in my head but I do have a splint with this splint I can come right I can type with it I can Dowe a phone so it's easy for me to be able to work with the handicap that I do have I I know I am a future out there I need to be out I cannot listen draw into a loon I need this to survive we are interrupted unexpectedly in the middle of the night driving to work playing tennis at the moment of birth cancer blindness a world of silence accident epilepsy wheelchairs and crutches they indiscriminately interrupt us tbh Eames insurance executive convention planners husband of 35 years weekend sailor a man with a life of Drive and enthusiasm was interrupted at the prime of his life by two heart attacks in one year I had my first heart attack in Minneapolis so about three years ago this last March and we'd been doing a series of regional sales meetings we were really working hard not physically hard mentally hard we're running sales meetings all day long then at night we but knock and go to the next site so it was a very tiring fast-moving trip tbh Hannes went from one heart attack to another into a world of cautions well-meaning friends and co-workers told him to slow down to take a nap to think about the time he has no scars in a wheelchair or crutches but he has a label TB Ames has a hidden disability now the hardest thing in the recuperation period is getting your head screwed on wondering where do we go from here what do we do next am I going to be capable of continuing with my job how's my employer going to react to my infirmity or disability if you will my feelings about TB and his handicap have really changed from the time he had the heart attack I really was concerned that he would not recover from it that he would not become a productive person that we might even have to be careful about putting him on a tension stress job like a regional vice president's and maybe have to find a different job for him that would fit his limitations as a result of his efforts we found no limitations and he is doing just an outstanding job in a far more competitive situation today it was even when he had his heart attack not everyone can overcome the disability some have no choice no chance their interruption comes at birth on October 14th 1953 Mary O'Hearn was born prematurely like thousands of other premature babies born at that time Mary was put into an incubator and given pure oxygen within days that sighted child's life was permanently interrupted Mary or Hearn just days old was blinded for life ever since I got out of high school I was always trying to find something to do and I wasn't either was he going about it right or didn't really know what I wanted and then people would always say that you know that I wasn't trying or that I liked being where I was and I could go out and do something but a lot of times when you'd go out and go for an interview people would say what a nice dog do you have does your mother calm your hair and it was so humiliating but after a while it was really hard to get enough courage up to go through interviews because they do the same thing and you know what kind of a position were in I hope you understand and just a lot of benevolent bigotry I just I didn't like it at all after 10 years of unintentional with hurtful questions after 10 years of job interviews that took hours to get to that lasted just minutes after 10 years of futility heartache and frustration Mary O'Hearn found someone who saw beyond the eyes that couldn't see I think that we had a lot of skeptics at the bookstore when we first started talking about having Mary run the switchboard and it was a new system in the store as well as having a person that was unsighted that really scared quite a few people but she's totally changed everyone's minds I believe about how well of a job she can do or any blind person could do on that switchboard she has a great working relationship with the employees here she knows just about everyone in the store and everyone takes a great interest in her and see she has a light probe that she uses on the switchboard that a sighted person wouldn't use and we put some tape lines on the board so she can find certain places more easily Mary O'Hearn doesn't have time for people who tell her what she can't do she's too busy to listen Muriel Hearn has a job to do August 15 1960 bill Dickinson was 16 years old a junior in high school while returning a car from Montana he was blinded by the lights of an oncoming car lost control rolled over and was pinned in the wreckage hours later he was found in an instant on a dark Highway a normal teenager becomes a quadriplegic the headlights that interrupted bill Dickinson's life leave him living today in a nursing home amid the smells and sounds of the senile [Music] at age 37 bill Dickinson's home is a room he shares with two others after 20 years of therapy 20 years of waiting and hoping bill was finally able to go to college and begin looking for his first job we put in several applications around town about three a week if I got the interview at safeco filled application out there a couple other banks downtown and while I was doing that they mentioned that Rainier Bank was interested in hiring a handicapped person and I went out and interviewed with them and they called up and gave me a job offer I got the phone call to five o'clock on a Friday night and I really wasn't expecting right here to call at that time because it was past five o'clock and was on a Friday so I don't know how it was and now they made the offer and they said the acceptance and I sure do you know so feel pretty good about it but then I started worrying about once I got the offers could I take care of the job you know some you can win good things they're worried about the next I was really surprised I kinda I guess expected more problems with Bill and maybe less production from him and maybe more of bill being introverted or more self-centered toward his own problems it's not that way at all I wouldn't want to try to give anybody the idea that that as far as bills work is concerned that he can do anything that anybody else can do there the obviously he's got some disabilities some impairments to it he overcomes he's in a couple different ways the things that he can do he does well bill has got a enough of an inventive enough mind that he figures out a way to get around things interruptions come to the young to those in the prime of their life to the innocent to the teenager to the small child silence by the time she was three years old silence filled the little girl's life Judy Provo alerts intelligence was totally deaf while other children learned to read and write Judy learned to talk with her hands the deafness that interrupted Judy's life did not embarrassing someone who would put her in a job or a single mistake and have life-and-death consequences hello can people always make me fear half if I'm not good enough or smart enough to do anything and it's been difficult to find job or to find employers that would give me a chance the stress of working in the laboratory is difficult on everyone who is here I don't think it's any more stressful for Judy than anyone else because her work is mostly between her and machine that she that communication doesn't seem to have any effect on that she seems to have a special ability to concentrate on what she's doing she can do more work than most people can someone might say that judy is handicapped but on the other side of the coin she may be specially gifted in that she does have this ability to concentrate and have special care and thoroughness in her work he was in the second grade seven years old active curious playing the child games that built future man the thing that interrupted my call demons life he had his first seizure on a playground and had hundreds more public into tribal epilepsy left him with friends who would stare at him rather than play with him epilepsy frightens people and it kept Mike from anything other than part-time menial jobs but after each rejection each seizure Mike alderman got up and kept looking after 11 years he found someone enlightened enough to give him a chance Mike was a very fast learner we put him out on her oven loading the oven not and Mike took to it very well he's a very fast sort of worker I've just really never had to think of Mike as being handicapped and in fact he never has had any problems here on the job because of his handicap well I don't consider myself handicapped no way at all disabled that is for the birth handicap it's possible but I doubt it at all I don't believe that I'd never really believed that through my whole life that's one reason why I've been able to go as far ahead as I am because I didn't accept the labels that society gets Mike Haldeman the man who wore the label of epileptic the man turned away from hundreds of jobs now as a title he can live proudly after less than one year on the job Mike alderman has become a supervisor on the July 4th weekend 1962 Kellie to me a school administrator Falls from a roof and breaks his neck he fought back from his interrupted life today he is a special consultant on the handicapped for Pacific Northwest Bell where he works full-time counselling employers sent a handicap if you're an employer I think you have a great opportunity today if you will take the time select the proper handicaps to do the job so they are building failures you're going to find a new resource a very dependable capable and reliable employee I'd love to be able to sit down with an employer and tell them that I already have a job but I'm a handicapped person as they would call me but I'm not that I'd like to be able to tell them not to be threatened by me being different yeah I can think though my brain is a nanny-cam I could read I can write I can understand figures an answer what's handicap you know it's just a question of what you have to do or what you want someone to do I think that's the whole key I think if you think of yourself as being disabled you are you're not any not any good to yourself you're probably not too much good to an employer think it over real carefully I'm sure that if you really do if you look at it you'll find that it's not going to take as much of your time as you're worried about it's not going to be as much of a liability as you think it's going to be a definite asset these people want to work think about what the applicant can do rather than what she or he can't do I wouldn't have any trouble if someone rolled in in a wheelchair or someone was deaf that came into the company we could find a job that they could do with a reasonable amount of training we would put them on that job don't prejudge the situation it's amazing what a person can do and they want to do a job and it doesn't hurt to try to give it a try makes a few accommodations that are needed and I think you'll be surprised that the success you could have I know I can provide some other things my kids need and I want to have that chance I can do it I know I can I can do it TB aims Mariel heard Bill Dickinson Judy Provo Mike Haldeman Kelly sue me and millions of others their lives were interrupted in an instant some of them have a disability none are incapable they all have found someone willing to put their talents and energy to work their performance is a matter of record they have touched everyone in their lives by their indomitable wills Susan Burns and the others whose lives have been interrupted need someone to give them a chance [Music]