News Article: “Carmelita Landry: A Brave Fitchburg Girl, A New Skating Rink"

“Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.'' Every day we take advantage of the simple senses we were granted at birth. Little do we truly understand when something so simple as sight can be taken away from us at any moment. Growing up, I struggled with a temporary vision impairment. The vision in my eye was very weak, and I could hardly see out of it. This causes me to use mostly my right eye. For about three years of my childhood, I had to wear glasses and an eyepatch. The eyepatch was used to cover my right eye so I was not using it as much. The glasses were used to strengthen the vision in my left eye. Being a child this was extremely uncomfortable and embarrassing. It was obvious that I was different from the other kids at school and in the playground. I was lucky enough to be able to have caught the issue at a young age. It would have been much more difficult to correct the impairment at an older age.

Losing vision in one or both eyes can be a difficult thing to adjust to when you are used to having complete vision in both eyes for your whole life. This was a struggle that Carmelita Landry had to face. Carmelita Landry was a resident of Fitchburg, MA, who at the age of seven years old lost sight in one of her eyes after an explosion. Despite her disability, Carmelita was an overachiever. Carmelita had many successes that would not be expected from her with her disability. Before she began her skating career her dad refused to buy her a pair of skates in fear that she would lose her remaining vision. Eventually when he allowed her to get the skates, she was able to accomplish so much. An article titled “Carmelita Landry:  A Brave Fitchburg Girl, A New Skating Rink” states that she “won the North American Women’s Speed Skating Championship in 1940, and retained her title, winning first place events in four out of five events.” Carmelita did not allow her disability to stop her from accomplishing her aspirations in life and from becoming a top skating competitor. Landry travelled the country skating because of how good she was. She went to Washington D.C., Wisconsin, and more.

Carmelita’s story shows that people with disabilities can accomplish their goals. There’s a stereotype behind people with disabilities not being able to be successful on their own. People tend to assume that people with disabilities cannot do anything because in some cases they may need extra support. Sometimes  people with disabilities may need extra accommodations, but that doesn’t mean they cannot do anything on their own. For example, someone who relies on a wheelchair for mobility may need help with anything requiring leg movement, but that person does not need assistance with other activities. So, yes, people with disabilities may be dependent  on another person, but they can be  very independent as well. This ties back to Carmelita’s story. Carmelita was able to obtain the skill and talent of ice skating on her own, even with having a vision impairment.

Being an athlete you already experience hardships: for example, time management, social life, stress, etc. An athlete with a disability has increased hardships. Some people without a disability will expect a person with a disability to not perform as well. This expectation may play a negative role emotionally to the athlete with a disability. Another challenge is that athletes with disabilities aren’t always allowed to participate in sports events alongside non-disabled athletes. This is because non-disabled people don’t want to feel as if they are “cheating” a person with a disability because of their different strengths and weaknesses. People may also fear losing to an “underdog,” in this case an athlete with disabilities. Most often a person with a disability is expected to lose or to fail. People cannot fathom the feeling of losing to someone with a difference in ability that we may not have.

It is hard to decide whether or not people with disabilities should be able to participate in sports with non-disabled people. Yes, at the end of the day we are all human and have different strengths and weaknesses. However, there may be accommodations that a person with a disability may need that are seemingly incompatible with the rules. Other athletes may look at it as not being “fair.” To argue that point, fair is people getting what they need and not what they want. The idea of a Special Olympics is nice, but may appear as segregating. It’s like telling a person with a disability that they can play but they can only play with someone who has similar differences . For an athlete with a disability, that is unfair. Athletes with disabilities do not need to only participate with other people with disabilities.

The bigger issue is that people do not consider the feelings of people with disabilities. We try to do all these things we think are helpful, but do not consider how a person will feel. What needs to be figured out is how we can include athletes with disabilities and people with disabilities that are not athletes in what we do on a regular basis and make sure everyone feels welcomed. Another issue still to this day is that people with disabilities aren’t accepted in our society. People need to do research and learn more about the many successful people with disabilities there are. For example, such as Carmelita Landry, who lost sight in one eye and became a very successful ice skater. Also Anthony Robles, who was born with one leg and who was the 2010-11 NCAA wrestling champion. It is no secret that people with disabilities can be as successful as a person without a disability. As a whole, we just have to acknowledge their successes rather than hiding or degrading what they are capable of achieving.