(Hosted & Produced by Marlon “Shymar” Molinos)

The View from Chair Level is a talk show that discusses various topics from the viewpoint of Marlon Molinos an individual living with Cerebral Palsy since birth. The goal of this show is to inspire everyone to look past your limitations and find creative ways to accomplish your daily goals. A free mind is limitless and you are the only one that sets your own limits. 

Featured Song: Bob Marley - Bob Marley - Buffalo Soldier

Background to Challenges

Disability is viewed different by different people based on their socio economic positions. For us Africans, disability is viewed as spiritual a curse despite medical explanations proffered.

For the West; disability is a natural phenomenon that is explained by medical theories taking for example, the Polio outbreak that affected many children in the late 1950s and the 1960's.Such different perceptions from people therefore attract different interventions from the Government. The challenges that disabled persons suffer range from physical (structural), emotional, economic, and psychological, education, culture and health/medical .The complexity of disability is that it is associated with poverty.

Disabled persons face a myriad of economic challenges. Mostly they arise out of the discrimination that they face from family, institutional and central government level. They are less or not educated at all.  Their level of participation in the economic arena is thus limited. They are unlikely to be accorded equal access to programs that empower the general populace.

Rebuttal: The goal of a disabled individual is the same as everyone, to contribute to society. As with all social movements, there are many setbacks and prejudices. Ultimately as time passed, laws were created to ensure equality for the disabled, i.e. the ADA. Despite laws being passed, we the disabled are still discriminated for one reason or another. I get that discrimination will always be a constant, but all we want is to be a resource adding to the community’s contributions. We just need someone to see the potential of what we can bring to the table and look past our short comings i.e. our disability. The one thing that everyone should think about before pre-judging a person’s inabilities are to consider how that person views the world. An autistic person may have other attributes such as an artistic eye that can provide an employer with the asset they need to better express the message of their company, product, or service. The employer just needs to be open-minded to the different ways of expressing one’s self to the other.

 Due to these economic reasons their medical needs cannot be adequately catered for they cannot even afford to acquire special appliances to aid them with their crutches, wheelchairs, hearing aids, Braille, and artificial limbs etc. The lack of resources creates a circle of poverty to the disabled as they least afford to send their own children to school. This means even at their old age where they cannot even do the menial jobs of vending, they do not have children who can assist them financially since the children will also be struggling financially.

Rebuttal: Over the year more and more programs are becoming available to the community with disabilities and their families to ensure that they become contributing members of society. It boils down to what you need to be a contributor. On Guam in particular, there are programs available to assist with job search like DVR and the One Stop Career Center, Transportation such as the Para Transit system, GHURA for housing, MIP and Food stamps for food and medical needs, etc. and DSS for assistance in connecting individuals to different programs by helping clients navigate through all the red tape to minimize confusion and stress through the application process of programs that a person may need to access.  

Yes, people with disabilities go through economic challenges just like everyone. We just need to surround ourselves with the people who can see the potential diamond in the rough and work with the system to get what we need to become contributors to our community.

Marlon Molinos – "it doesn't matter how a disability or situation is acquired. What matters is how you overcome, survive, and thrive with it."