VIDEOS

Surround me with friends in a casual setting and I’ll enjoy myself and my company, with laughter and gab washing over us in a bright, babbling feedback loop. But transplant the same crew to a big, buzzing room for a show or event, where spirits are flowing and the living is large, and I turn into the invisible man. Energy is up, excitement is up, and the party’s blowing the roof off the place, but I’m down here — at butt-level — in my power wheelchair. You can’t hear me, and I can’t hear you.

"People with intellectual disabilities need to be treated and respected the same way that we do every other patient who shows up at the doctor," said University of Chicago public health researcher Harold Pollack. "We are a long way from that."