In This is No Ordinary Kid, writer Jane shares stories about her life BC – before Cameron – and AC – after Cameron.

Jane is a mother of an 8 year old daughter and a 15 year old son Cameron who developed Pneumococcal Meningitis, which left him with an acquired brain injury, epilepsy, total deafness in his right ear, a weakness in his right eye and muscle weakness down his right side.

Today, she regularly gives talks for The Meningitis Centre about her experience with Meningitis to educate, mostly medical staff, about life for patients after hospital and the effects on families when children develop deadly diseases. She is also the President of Cameron’s Riding for the Disabled Centre and volunteers at both of the children’s schools.

In one of my favorite posts, “He is Finally Doing What Little Boys Should Do… And Then“, she describes the sense of pride and joy pulsing through her as she watched Cameron do something complete out of the ordinary.

“After a few minutes I wondered what he was doing and wandered out to find him sitting on the edge of the bricks playing with some sand. Astonished I quickly retreated so I wouldn’t disturb him and went inside to get  my camera… he was sitting in the sand, totally engrossed and he was having FUN. He’d found a scoop for balls and was digging the sand with it. I left him alone after I got my photographic proof. This is not normal behaviour for our Cameron.”

Another great post from Jane, which I think many parents of children with disabilities will be able to relate to, is entitled “Disabled Toilets Frustrate Me“.

“A few days ago I had to take Cameron to the toilet while we were in a public place. Again just like when we went to the Zoo the disabled toilets were inside the male and female toilets. I couldn’t go into the male toilets so I had to take my sixteen year old son into the female toilets…”  (read full article here)

The awkwardness/embarrassment of having to take your child into the other bathroom, we learn from this post, is just the beginning. A lot more can be done about the layout and structure of accessible bathroom stalls. And based on the comments she’s been receiving, many others face the same issues.

A few months ago, the JJ’s List Blog published an article by guest blogger Darby about why places that have single-stall restrooms should label them as all-gender restrooms. Perhaps it’s time we pay more attention to this absolutely essential, yet often overlooked, part of our physical environment.

JJ’s List is proud to feature This Is No Ordinary Kid as our Disability-Blogger of the Month!