http://goo.gl/5gSLi5
For over ten years Martin Pistorius was trapped in his own body, fully cognizant, but unable to speak or move. He was surrounded by people who believed he was incapable of thinking and tried desparately to get just one person to notice. His story serves as a wake-up call for all of us to drastically change our assumptions about speech and intellectual capacity as well as the need to radically reform expectations and treatment of people with communication impairments of any kind.
Martin Pistorius’ honest and chilling account of the abuse he endured exposes the harsh reality for many disabled people who do not have a means a reliable means to communicate . At the same time, it’s a story of his remarkable will and strong faith in unimaginable circumstances.
Martin is not the first person presumed incompetent because he cannot speak with his mouth. He is simply able to tell his story now because he was given access to communication. How many “Martins” are waiting right now for someone like Virna to see them as human, to talk to them, to notice the subtle ways in which they are constantly communicating?
Thousands? Tens of thousands? Hundreds of thousands? So many people placed in a category thought to be incapable of understanding because they do not have a reliable means to communicate all that they are thinking. Martin puts a very real face on the absolute necessity to treat each human with dignity and respect as well as to provide age appropriate educational and social opportunities.