Author: East Texas Review

Deb Cotter is an Independent Living Program Specialist at ACL. She is one of more than 79,000 people who make HHS run every day.   I grew up in Maine as the quiet type. I came to Washington to work on Capitol Hill for then-Sen. George Mitchell of Maine. But as a seemingly healthy 24-year-old in 1992, I had a stroke due to a birth defect, which, among other things, partially paralyzed my left side.  It was not the life I had envisioned. Despite physical therapy, getting “back to normal” was impossible, and so I hit the restart button.  I had to find a new normal.  Part of that was to put others at ease with my disability. Rather than searching for the holy grail, a cure for my paralysis, I realized that I had to transform. I became more outgoing—because people are always going to ask you what is wrong with you.  I find that if I put others at ease with my disability it’s easier to get what I need. I went to work for a variety of nonprofits, and later government programs, that support people with disabilities. I finally emerged as more self-directed, the CEO of my own life. A major turning point in my life came in 2014, when I performed in a talent show for the Combined Federal Campaign, the federal government’s workplace charitable...