Daniyah Manderson, a young teacher in New York City who also happens to have spinal muscular atrophy, is profiled in yesterday’s Times. The article and accompanying video provide an unflinching look at the challenges in her life that are both mundane (a broken elevator in the school where she teaches) to the deeply personal (an abusive husband). She is also raising a young daughter. The piece manages to capture Daniyah’s independent spirit as well as the reality of her limitations without falling into the trap of supercrip worship. It also makes me think that New York City is probably more inaccessible than Minneapolis by several orders of magnitude.
The article includes some details that made me wince. Daniyah doesn’t eat or drink anything during the day because nobody is available to help her use the bathroom at school. While the school isn’t obligated to assist her with her personal needs, it’s also not great policy to let one of your employees starve and dehydrate herself each day. It’s stories like this that remind me how ridiculously spoiled I am when it comes to having my own needs met.
