Disability Didn’t End Their Athletic Dreams. It Started Them.

I volunteer at Atlanta’s Shepherd [spine and brain injury] Center. My friend there is a lifelong athlete who sustained a cervical spine injury in a trampoline accident; now he plays on Shepherd’s quadriplegic Rugby team. “Murderball”, y’all!

Mr. Fields - thank you for an this inspiring story of vision and leadership.

This is a good (“you are Such an inspiration”) story in the same vein as so many like it. While it IS certainly worth reminding people that it takes so much more to keep going than to quit, and I say this as a double amputee of two decades: Why is it always about sports? Why aren’t there articles about the disabled who go to jobs, raise children, pay mortgages, and just get up and work every single day - even though it takes 80-400% more energy to do the same things as the able-bodied. It is great when these athletes can apply themselves to their goal, and are not the quitters that so many people are in the face of obstacles. But really, where are the accolades for those of us who manage a “regular” life with a full time job, don’t collect social security even though we could, and don’t have the time/energy to attain superior physical skills but do have loving families? Why don’t you write an article about the complete lack of acceptance of anything outside of “normal” by hiring managers? And how, most likely, if you got a job it is because you are “lucky” enough to be able to hide your disability in an interview.

Mr. Fields, you are one special man!

Within the first four photos, this piece has my heart. After 7 weeks of using a wheelchair for my son with special needs for his surgical recovery, I have a richer appreciation for how the world treats people who require them. At least for the physical barriers alone. My

@Donahue Fields. You, my friend have dug deeper into your well than few men know possible. That makes you a prophet, a roadmap to a brighter future. You manifest, clearly, tangibly, unequivocally, what a human being, if properly pressured, can accomplish. That is your gift. And, I thank you, sincerely.

Thank you @nytimes for sharing my story, no our story because I am one of many doing our best to change the narrative of the word Disabled.

I have been following the work of Nolan Ryan Trowe recently, not because he has a disability but because he is a photographer. An excellent, perceptive one. I first learned about him from a previous Times essay of his. Nolan is a photojournalist. He uses his eyes to capture what he sees and what he wants to reveal, with attention to subject, composition and lighting with a skill that can be missed or taken for granted. He is sensitive about the challenges of disability, but neither he nor his subjects allow themselves to be totally defined by it. They are all much more, and they let you know it.

I love to read stories about what people do to overcome obstacles and achieve a return to a sense of normalcy that they had before their life altering incidents they experienced. I would like to tell Mr. Field, "Kudos" and keep up the good works.

Gotta be a better way to give these guys what they need … and what they want.