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         A lot of people are still saying "people with disabilities" instead of "people with abilities"

Listening is the key!

         I would like agencies to listen carefully to the people they support and to make sure those people come first. People with disabilities must be presented with all the options from which they can make choices, be encouraged to make choices, and supported through their change.

        Don't make choices that people can make themselves, unless they ask. By empowering people with disabilities to make choices, you are launching them on the path to taking their rightful place as decision makers in the service delivery system.

My suggestions to people receiving support is for them also to do a lot of listening and questioning.

       The goal of all of us who have been labeled with a developmental disability should be to educate ourselves and the public. We must try to make people aware that although we have a disability, we also have a lot of strengths.

       We want to be treated fairly and respected as good citizens.

Our message is that we can do it and that even though we often fear we will slip up, we want to take reasonable risks in life.

       Networks of inclusion are important to making this process succeed.

For me, networking means family, relatives, neighbors, friends and volunteers coming together to help someone make choices between options and to help them achieve and experience that chosen lifestyle.

Local and provincial bodies should support self-advocates to be heard and should develop the means for working together with them.

        We all learn together, we dream together. Open new doors allowing people to have the same chance that I was given.