I felt pretty hopeless yesterday, reading about all the families of children with disabilities around me being cheated out of educations a their public schools…or worse, being punished for seeking an education for their children (or the children being abused and traumatized themselves).

The sadness that sets in when I hear these stories is overwhelming.

But today I found inspiration in a speech given by Bill Gates to the graduating class at Harvard last June. (Many thanks to Kelly for posting about Mariska Haritay because Gates' speech was posted in its entirety on Mariska’s blog.)

Gates gave me some inspiration for the advocacy that is needed for children with disabilities. Here are some excerpts that inspired and challenged me:

But humanity’s greatest advances are not in its discoveries – but in how those discoveries are applied to reduce inequity. Whether through democracy, strong public education, quality health care, or broad economic opportunity – reducing inequity is the highest human achievement.
I left campus knowing little about the millions of young people cheated out of educational opportunities here in this country.

Now Bill is talking about children living in poverty in most cases, but it also applies to children with disabilities.

…I talk to skeptics who claim there is no hope. They say: “Inequity has been with us since the beginning, and will be with us till the end – because people just … don’t … care.” I completely disagree.
I believe we have more caring than we know what to do with.
All of us…, at one time or another, have seen human tragedies that broke our hearts, and yet we did nothing – not because we didn’t care, but because we didn’t know what to do. If we had known how to help, we would have acted.
The barrier to change is not too little caring; it is too much complexity.

These words are profound. Too much complexity! Therein lies the problem with much of the struggles parents of “special kids” deal with today. Our struggles are too complex for people to understand – it’s not that no one cares, it’s that no one understands what to do about it!

To turn caring into action, we need to see a problem, see a solution, and see the impact. But complexity blocks all three steps.

I think what Bill has to say is right on! He went on in this speech to talk about the importance of communication and the way technology (i.e. the Internet and computers) can be used to give people a voice who otherwise might not ever be heard. This message applies to people with disabilities as well.
The answer for solutions to these complex problems lies in the pulling together of creative minds who are all passionate about solving problems. It is in the pulling together and uniting forces that what seems complex as an individual effort can be simplified Together we can define the problem, design the solution and envision the impact.
I will continue thinking about what Bill has to say. About how complexity leads us to inaction and what can be done about that. I have personally lived in the “it’s hopeless; there is no way out” land for too long now. Complexity is exactly at the root of the problem. Just trying to explain the journey I’ve been through seeking an appropriate education for LuLu to other Partners classmates this weekend showed me that my story is NOT simple and it’s hard to communicate it succinctly. If it’s hard to communicate it to parents of children with disabilities (who, by virtue of living their own complexities, “get it”), how much harder is it for us to communicate to the public. How can they care if they can’t clearly see the problem, the solution and the impact they can make?

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Photo Credit

For information/instructions on how to subscribe FREE to your favorite AdoptionBlogs, please visit this link.