(woman) Good morning, Mr. B.
(man) Morning.
(woman) How you doing?
(man) I'm fine.
Life bring on a challenge,
but when you get a challenge in front of you,
you have to deal with it and find a way around it.
And my life is about me doing what I want to,
when I want to.
I may not be able to do it the way that the other person does,
but I get it done.
(woman) Now ready?
(man) I always wake up and I say,
"God, thank you for waking me up.
It gives me another day to get it right."
And it gives me another day to teach these folks in society
that people with disabilities do have a life.
Nakisha's been a good support person.
We're like family.
(woman) I have to help him get ready in the morning.
I do transfers because he's not able to do it on his own.
(man) She's like my right hand.
I wished I had her 24 hours a day,
but that don't work like that.
He amazes me sometimes.
He does a lot of things that I'm like, "Oh, gosh."
I couldn't do it,
you know, speaking in front of people
and all the traveling
and just fighting for what he believes in.
And I just-- my hat is off to him.
Have a good day. All right, Mr. B.
(man) I do have a disability,
but I also have capabilities to get around my disability.
A lot of people always tell me,
"You can't do this. You can't do that."
I've never been in an institution.
I've always been out in the community,
and I've always helped people get out of institutions.
(woman) People with disabilities
might need help with getting out of bed,
might need help with dressing or bathing.
We still want to be independent and make choices
and not be locked away in institutions
where we have to be on someone else's schedule.
(woman) The whole medical way of looking at things
is different from the independent living way,
which says people with disabilities
are the experts in their own lives.
They know what they need.
We all know what we need best for ourselves.
Well, Bernard is lots of things.
Bernard is one of the people who first
helped DisABILITY LINK be established,
was one of the group of people who founded DisABILITY LINK.
(man) Hello, Linda.
(woman) How you holding up, Bernard?
(man) I'm fine. How are you?
We help people learn what their rights are
as a person with a disability.
We help them learn to become independent.
And I'm the outreach transportation coordinator.
Yes, ma'am, it's a transportation meeting
for the regional commission, and I was calling...
(woman) Transportation, employment,
education, health care, housing:
those are the issues that disproportionately impact
people with disabilities.
(woman) Some people have lived at home their whole life.
They've been told that they can't live on their own;
they can't live independently.
Then they'll see Bernard.
They see that he's living on his own.
But they might be afraid to take the train somewhere
or go somewhere.
And he'll take them.
(woman) He's a mentor to lots of people.
[laughter]
[indistinct conversation]
(man) We've been nice-- we've been nice all day.
What happened over the weekend, Ryan?
We got to get people out of that old mentality
that people with disabilities should not be seen or heard.
(woman) She ain't no baby no more.
(woman) Disability is not special.
It's just part of the human existence.
All of us, sooner or later, are likely to have disability.
Some people have their sooners,
and some people have their laters.
(man) Even if I hurt, I got to do what I got to do,
because there's people out in the community
that need the help.
And it gives me a privilege to see other people do
what people said couldn't be done.
And I guess that's why I'm such a fighter.
This is disability to me.
What is it to you?