DISABILITIES

By Daniel J. Vance

After receiving positive responses recently for re-visiting a popular past column, I decided to do more of the same. Here is another popular column, this one from 2005:

Today, we still remember Heather Whitestone (now Whitestone McCallum) as the first Miss America with a disability.

Diagnosed at 18 months as profoundly deaf after a severe illness, she has turned her disability on end. "As a high school senior, I learned God didn't make mistakes and He allowed disabilities to happen to some people for good reasons," said 32-year-old Heather in an email.

She took a long, hard road becoming Miss America 1995.

For one, her school teachers weren't trained to teach her. They held her back in second grade and nearly in fourth after which she begged to be sent to a school for the deaf. "My mother didn't want me learning sign language, so she put me in an oral school for the deaf," Heather said.

She caught up with her public school peers by advancing two grade levels each year over three years and reentering public school at 14 as a ninth grader. "The oral school for the deaf gave me educational skills and the public school socializing skills with the hearing world, which helped me communicate well at the Miss America Pageant," she said.

Fans still ask how at the Miss America Pageant she was able to synchronize her dancing with the music. "Before dancing on that stage, what I did for two years before was count the [beats] while feeling the music with my hand on the speaker. On stage, as the music started, I began counting the [beats] memorized in my heart. That's how I danced."

Her Miss America platform was on motivating people to overcome obstacles and believing anything was possible with God's help. She and her family created STARS, which stands for “Success Through Action and Realization of your Dreams,” and emphasizes having a positive attitude, goals, a willingness to work hard, realistic view of obstacles, and a support team.

"Doctors told my parents a normal life was impossible for a deaf person," Heather said. "They said I wouldn't go beyond third grade, speak with my voice or drive on my own. Now I speak on television without sign language, drive my boys to school, and have attended college."

In 2011, she still travels as a public speaker.

Facebook: Disabilities By Daniel J. Vance. [Palmer Bus Service and Blue Valley Sod made this column possible.]