Overcoming Disability Quotes

Having had polio never held me back as I got older. Although having one leg smaller than the other isn't much fun, I could always get about without any trouble. Luckily, in the music industry, everyone was only interested in my singing and playing and not the size of my legs.

The night before my amputation, my former basketball coach brought me a magazine with an article on an amputee who ran in the New York Marathon. It was then I decided to meet this new challenge head on and not only overcome my disability, but conquer it in such a way that I could never look back and say it disabled me.

I refuse to allow a disability to determine how I live my life. There is only one way to go in life and that is forward.

My brother was told that he wouldn't walk, that he wouldn't be able to play drums, that he wouldn't be able to race a car - and he's done all those things. He's defied the odds, defied disability. I look at him and I'm so inspired, by his mentality and by how incredible the body and the mind are. There's really nothing you can't do. My brother has proved that.

There are things that I really find important, and that we need to remind ourselves of. When you think about disability, do you really think about it? Someone who's a full-time trainer or a boxer, someone who's got a major disability, but who doesn't let that get in his way, that's a really good message for someone who is able-bodied. It can make them think, 'Wow, I suppose I could be doing better for myself.'

I was slightly brain damaged at birth, and I want people like me to see that they shouldn't let a disability get in the way. I want to raise awareness - I want to turn my disability into ability.

There was a time when I was not able to speak properly because of my medical condition. But I managed to fight against all those odds.

No history of the world can be complete which does not mention Mary Helen Keller... whose overcoming of her blindness and deafness were arguably victories more important than those of Alexander the Great, because they have implications still for every living person.