Vuong's Public Speaking & Mentoring Program

Whether they aim to be teachers or therapists, most students who aspire to work someday with disabled people face one truly challenging obstacle: It’s difficult for someone who doesn’t have a disability to really understand the lives and needs of those who do. My name is Kim Vuong, and I am a 36-year-old woman with athetoid cerebral palsy, a condition that makes it difficult for me to use my muscl

es in the sort of smooth, coordinated movements that most people take for granted. I’ve gone through a lot of hardships in life, from growing up in an impoverished immigrant family to surviving a horrific violent crime. Nevertheless, with the help of assistive technology, I have been able not only to live independently, but to get a college education, work as a counselor, and otherwise lead a normal life. I would like share with your students the story of how I overcame my disability, and help them to better understand what they can do to help others like me, who will be their future students and clients. I can help them to develop a much better understanding of what it is like to have a disability, and of the day-to-day obstacles that we face, both in the tasks of daily living and in being part of a fully-abled society that is often apathetic and sometimes hostile to us. I also will explain to your class how to be an advocate and motivator for disabled people, and how important it is to help them to achieve as much as they can, rather than accepting their physical limitations. Here are some of the topics I will focus upon:
• My childhood and how I struggled to cope not just with my disability, but with harassment and abuse by others.
• My experiences as a special education student, and how teachers and therapists helped me to succeed.
• How I made it through college, and my strategies for keeping up with my fully-abled peers.
• The difficulties that disabled people face in the working world, and how I’ve coped with them.
• How I use an ACC device and other technology.
• How I survived a violent assault, and how they can help other disabled people who too often become victims of predators.
• How a disabled person can lead a normal, fulfilling life, with the right tools and assistance.
• My experiences with speech and language pathologists, and how they can best help their clients. I charge a fee of $50 for a one-hour presentation to a classroom group, and $75-100 for an auditorium-sized group. That includes a PowerPoint presentation and a handout with additional resources, which you can copy or distribute in electronic form to your students. It also includes a brief question-and-answer session, which I will conduct using assistive technology. I also can give my presentation via the Internet in teleconference form, if your school has the necessary setup. You can reach me via email at [email protected] or by leaving a voicemail message at 714-580-6521 so that I can respond using speech relay operator. I’m looking forward to speaking to your class.