At age 21, Bob Mortimor had a full and normal life — until one rainy night after partying and doing drugs, when he and his brother crashed into a utility pole. They both walked away from the accident laughing about what a good story it would make Monday morning. As they crawled over the embankment, their car careened over and onto the asphalt. Mortimor’s hand touched a live wire, which sent him to his knees as hundreds of volts of electricity surged through his body.
Six months later, Mortimor left the hospital as a triple amputee, confined to a wheelchair and handicapped for the rest of his life.
These days Mortimor travels the country as a motivational speaker. “The greatest handicap I have — the greatest handicap any one of you will ever have — is the handicap you put on yourself,” said Mortimor at the Conference for the Disabled Community held over the weekend at McLean Bible Church. “Missing legs and missing arms are not handicaps. Blindness, deafness, physical ailments are not handicaps. These are adjustments. It doesn’t mean we are handicapped, it just means we know how to adjust.”
Mortimer, who founded Bob Mortimor Motivational Ministries, lives in Gig Harbor, Wash., with his wife, Darla, and three children.
SEVERAL HUNDRED PEOPLE attended the Conference for the Disabled Community to network and learn about new programs emerging to address the needs of the disabled and help them “adjust.”
The conference is structured to “pull together the faith-based organizations and the community to work together to empower and better the lives of people with disabilities,” said Jacquelyn Mills-Fernald, director of Access Ministry for McLean Bible Church, where the event was held over the weekend.
More than six hundred people attended the two-day conference, which brought together service providers, government agencies and community resources in one place to help further the independence and inclusion of persons with disabilities.
Mortimor used his own life experience to define what “handicapped” is and isn’t, for his keynote address. “I’m hoping to give a broader perspective on what handicap is about. I want people to understand what the real handicap in life is, and it’s not just for those of us with adjustments to make,” said Mortimor. He contends prejudice and a lack of understanding about disabilities are the true handicaps in today's world.
Pam Barrett, with Fairfax County Disability Services, said that this is her third year exhibiting at the summit and that the county comes to reach out to the community. “We try to put people in the right direction to get the services they need,” said Barrett.
LYNN RUIZ WITH the ARC of Northern Virginia said the conference provides her organization with an opportunity to reach out to members and let them know what new programs are being developed. Ruiz said the centralization of information allows it to cover the spectrum of people who can benefit from the information. That includes people with disabilities, parents and primary care givers, and teachers.
“It’s good to have our name out there so people know who we are. It’s general outreach, but this affords the opportunity to reach the people we’re directly involved with,” said Ruiz.
According to Mills-Fernald, the summit gives families affected by disabilities the chance to learn from the personal experiences of other families with similar situations and to share resources.
Having speakers like Mortimor available sets an empowering tone. Handicaps, in Mortimor’s view, “put the ‘U’ in unique. The world might call them disabled, but they are doing their best.”