Thank you, Amy, for that.
This is a really amazing woman. There are a number of people that exploit their physical disability on stage but this is really relevant. Amy Purdue has some really important things to say. It is not about how things are rated, evaluated, seen by other people. The real question is what you can eek out, yourself. Perceive boundaries not as an obstacle or in a negative way. Use them. Push off of them. Use them to inspire your imagination. Innovation with limitations and restrictions is far more important than innovation “without limitations”. Limitations and borders: that is where the story begins.
And yes. Boundaries and limitations are where the story begins. Very much so. The moment you see the prosthetic options for the first time, that is when you feel like puking in a huge arch. I felt it was like a huge blow to my belly. They placed a cosmetic, body powered and myoelectric arm in front of me and asked me, which one I wanted. Whoa. I didn’t know that unacceptable options were made avaiable that early that fast then. I re-assembled myself from that shock and asked what these would cost. The technician said the cosmetic was 2000, the body powered arm was 5000, and the myoelectric arm was 45’000. So I re-investigated these and said that for the price of a myoelectric arm I was going to get both a cosmetic and a body powered arm. To this day I know it was the right choice. But, how gory, nevertheless. Only later did I start to use the prosthetic to turn the meat on the grill. If my life were the book, and I was the author. How would I want the story to go? For me, solve my problems, and help those that look for the same along the way. Yeah, that. Most definitely.
Even though, missing a hand is a serious communicative disability.
Great talk.