People with disabilities view themselves reflected in a mirror that most people cannot even see. People without disabilities see hopelessness. People with disabilities see courage and potential to be all they can be. (Paul Smith Typewriter Artist video via YouTube)…
In this scene, Karen brings her friends to her Mama’s bedroom, where they are awestruck by the image of themselves in a mirror. This is what the dresser looked like, but the reflection in the mirror is not what they…
In this scene, Karen meets her friend Tammy’s sister, an unhappy teenager who resents her disabled little sister. (Image courtesy of Ken Chan, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons) Scene 4: Up the Brick Path Kimberly’s long brown hair was…
In this short scene, Karen watches as her friends arrive and feels reassured by her mother’s presence. (Image courtesy of Pinterest.) Scene 5: Waiting for Tammy and Kimberly The week seemed to take forever, but now Tammy and Kimberly would…
As Mama was hoping, Karen comes home from school and asks for a play date with Tammy. (Image courtesy of DuckFiles, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons) Scene 2: Tammy Wants a Play Date A few minutes later, Karen hopped…
This scene opens Chapter 25: Magical, which explores the effects of friendship, art, and even makeup on young lives. Scene 1 sets the stage, as Tammy’s mom phones Karen’s to propose a play date for the girls. (Image courtesy of…
In the final scene of chapter 24, Karen gets a powerful insight into her purpose in life. After helping her Mama cook and clean up after dinner, thirteen-year-old Karen visits her spiritual mentor and begins to understand how far-reaching the…
Sometimes, when we learn to love and accept ourselves we can love others more than we knew we could. Love rises to a new level, and we find that acting from that place of love changes how we live. In…
After the brutal clinic and eval, Karen turns to her friend, Tammy, for sympathy, but Tammy had an even worse experience at the hands of the experts. Nevertheless, they do not let this undermine their sense of self-worth. (Image courtesy…
[Editor’s note: Jillian Day created 508Assist.org to help people all across the web make their sites accessible to individuals with disabilities. She was inspired to start 508Assist.org when a close family member, who happens to have a visual impairment, had…