Theodore Roosevelt YouTube Clip Analysis

This YouTube clip is from Roosevelt's speech on April 23, 1910. It explains how Roosevelt views of the American people: '...that they are fit to govern themselves, to rule themselves, to control themselves'. It also demonstrates Roosevelt's pride in his home country and that he dreams of an America that is fully controlled and functioned by it's own people and that it should also work for the people so that they can greatly enrich themselves. He also openly states that his polictical opponents do not believe in that type of freely-run America and should not be elected into Presidential office. He also believes that whoever would take his place as the next President would carry on his message of freedom and making sure that America is ready for the challenges ahead.

Lenin Moreno YouTube Clip Analysis

This clip is taken from a speech in which Moreno addressed the people of Ecuador and encouraged them to rethink the way that they treat and view disabled people and also not to think of having a disability as a punishment from God. I chose this YouTube clip because out of all of them, I think that this one most emphasises  Moreno's eagerness and undying motivation to get disabled equal rights and to be treated like human beings.

Stephen Hawking YouTube Clip Analysis

This is a trailer for the upcoming Stephen Hawking documentary-movie, Hawking. This clip shows the many various obstacles and challenges, including muscular dystrophy, and is still able to communicate and live a day-to-day life. It also shows Hawking's past and the life that he led prior to his disability and the hard work that led to his extremely high intelligence. The trailer also shows that Hawking has learn to put work and family separate and also explains his dream to venture into outer space and become an astronaut.

Braun YouTube Clip Analysis

This YouTube clip shows how Ralph Braun has overcome his disability and has revolutionised the way that disabled people live their day-to-day and encourages other disabled people to do the same and to ignore prejudice and discrimination and live life to the full. He also inspires people to treat people with disabilities with dignity, equality and respect.

Scoliosis Interview

Scoliosis Interview

I have asked my mum and dad a series of questions about scoliosis. These are the questions and answers from each parent as follows:

1) How did you feel when I was diagnosed with scoliosis?

''I think...I think...Well, we already knew that you had scoliosis. But with everything that you'd already gone through at St. Mary's, it was just one more thing for you to cope with and as a parent, you don't want to actually hear that your child is diagnosed with scoliosis.'' - My dad, David Hoad.

''Erm...I've got to say that I didn't really know what scoliosis was at the time so I wasn't really all that concerned about it, and also because you had more serious problems at the time.''
 - My mum, Hazel Hoad.

2)  How did you feel when I had my first spine operation?

''I was very scared because it was a big operation. I knew that they had to take away one of your ribs. I remember being so  nervous that I questioned Mr. Williamson's ability to carry out the operation.'' - My dad.

''Very scared and very nervous. It took a very long time to do the operation. Relieved when it was over and done with. I also hoped that the outcome would make you feel better and had a better recovery.''  - My mum.

3) How did you feel when you were told that I had to wear a plaster cast?

''Relief at first, because they thought that they could manage your scoliosis with a plaster cast. But then when you were too small to tolerate it, I was really sad because I knew that you would have to a spine operation'' - My dad.

''Devastated. It was my worst nightmare because I'd seen other children with them and they always looked very uncomfortable. It was very difficult performing day-to-day activities.'' - My mum.

4) How did you feel when I came back from an operation?

''Absolute relief because after the major operations because they were so big and long, it was scary. Because there was always a risk that permanent damage could have been done, such as paralysis. On the smaller operations because they were over and done with for another 6 months and you could get back into your normal routines.'' - My dad.

''Relieved and I wanted to make sure that you were okay and braced myself for the grumpiness that came due to the morphine and anasectic. I was also pleases when I had you home and safe again'' - My mum.

Celebrities with Disabilities

Stephen Hawking

Stephen Hawking is a former professor at the Mathematics University of Cambridge. Hawking's first autobiography 'A Brief History in Time' gained international acclaim and even to this day is still considered a bestseller. Hawking contracted motor neurone disease in 1963, but did not allow this to detour him. He studied at Cambridge and went on to be brilliant researcher and professor at Gonville and Calus university. Wherein he won 12 honorary degrees. He was awarded a CBE in 1982 and was made a companion of Honour in 1989. Along with his many accolades, Hawking is a Fellow of the Royal Society and a member of the US National Academy of Sciences. He is also now director of research at the Centre of Theoretical Cosmology. Stephen Hawking makes it his dream to go into space someday. He has written many books and essays including General Relativity: An Einstein Centenary Survey and The Large Structure of Space and Time.

http://www.hawking.org.uk

Ralph Braun

Ralph Braun was born in 1940 and was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy at the age of 7. His parents were told by the doctors that their son would never live a normal life and would require around-the-clock care. Upon hearing this, Ralph was determined to prove them wrong. He was also equally poised and determined to make life easier for disabled people with his and similar disabilities. His first step towards this goal was to develop the world's first battery-powered scooter. This initial design eventually evolved into the world's first wheelchair lift, complete with with hand controls and installable inside vehicles. This ultimately led Ralph to create his own wheelchair company, Braun Ability, which manufactures and then distributes wheelchairs all across the globe. Even in his latter years, Ralph, still driven by his never ending ambition to give disabled people equal chances, mobility and prospects, created the Mobility Act of 2013.

http://www.braunability.com/ralph-braun/

Lenin Moreno

Lenin Moreno was the President of Ecuador from 2007 to 2013. On May17th 2004 in New York, Moreno went to the local store to buy beard. On his way back home, he was assaulted by a robber who shot him in the snipe, leaving him paralysed and unable to walk. During his recuperation Moreno witnessed the shocking discrimination and prejudice that people with his disability encounter in everyday life. He was also appalled at the treatment of people with disabilities in his home country of Ecuador, most of whom were only surviving on very little benefits and food hand outs, and the constant stigma in Ecuador that having a disability was seen as a divine punishment by God. This was a devastating shock to Moreno as he had come from an extremely wealthy family and had never before seen how badly disabled people were ostracised.

 Refusing to let his disability get him down, Moreno tried seeing the lighter side of life to mask his pain and, after two agonising years, finally got himself into a wheelchair. Moreno became a motivational speaker and encouraged people to change the way that they view disability. He also wrote five books on laughter therapy.

In 2007, he was elected President of Ecuador and set up Ecuador's first ever survey on disabled people. He sent surveyors into rural and remote parts of the country and found that most Ecuadorians with disabilities were living off $96 a year. In 2010, he took to the television in an effort to try to ease the fears of his people when Vice President Correa had been captured by coup plotters.

In the same year, he also won the Noble Peace Prize for assisting disabled people in Ecuador.  

http://legacy.pitchengine.com/eo_integration/lenin-moreno-paraplegic-vice-president-of-ecuador--nobel-prize-nominee

Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt, Jr was the 26th and youngest President of United States. He was also a soldier, historian and explorer. He also suffered from asthma and had difficulty breathing at times.  He was elected the President of the United States at 42 years old. He was liked by many of the American people for his energetic and "cowboy" persona, but at the same time he was also very courageous and fearless. He was very caring about the people and always tried to do good by his people and serve them with dignity and respect. 

During the Spanish-American war which was fought over control of the border between the US and the Gulf of Mexico, Roosevelt saw active service as lieutenant colonel of the Rough Riders Regiment. He even led the US attack against the Spanish forces in San Juan. 

Whilst in office, Roosevelt saw his Presidential position as a means of helping to solve the country's economic difficulties and bridging between the rich and the poor.  To help achieve this, Roosevelt fixed the need for a quick mode of transport between the Atlantic and the Pacific by installing the Panama Canal. This also prevented enemy nations from establishing military bases in the Caribbean and helped the US to intervene in Latin America.

Despite his typically hard-hitting and militaristic thinking, Roosevelt acted diplomatically during the Russo-Japanese war and even Goodwill aid all across the affected countries. For this selfless and noble act, he was awarded the Noble Prize.

He was also a big environmentalist and initiated various policies to protect the trees and to improve agricultural standards in the West. Perhaps one of the most iconic acts was when he went hunting in the woods and refused to shoot a baby bear. This act inspired the creation of the teddy bear toy that is very well known and popular even to this very day. 

http://www.biography.com/people/theodore-roosevelt-9463424

Donald Sutherland

Donald Sutherland is a famous Canadian actor with a media career that has lasted for over 40 years. In his early years, he was very sick. He had rheumatic fever, hepatitis and polio. As a distraction, Sutherland developed a love for media and script reading and has become a very successful actor and has appeared in more than 130 films. In 2000, Sutherland was nominated for a place on the Walk of Fame. He was known as Canada's youngest radio producer at 14. In 1967 he starred in The Dirty Dozen, in 1970 Sutherland starred as Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce in MASH the movie and as tank commander Sgt. Oddball in Kelly's Heroes. His most recent works are The Hunger Games and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.

In 1958 Sutherland went to England to study at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. He then left in 1960. He was also very ill with Meningitis in 1979 and very nearly died and he claims to have actually reached the afterlife for a brief time. He also appeared in Invasion of the Body Snatchers in 1978 and it's remake in 1994. He was also nominated for three Best Picture Oscar for his work in three films: MASH in 1970, Ordinary People in 1980 and JFK in 1991. 

He thanks his various diseases, disabilities and health complications for his success throughout the years and once said that without it, he would not be where he is today.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000661/bio/ 

History of Scoliosis

The first reported case of scoliosis dates back as far as 3500 BC, when most people believed that having scoliosis was a punishment by God for committing acts of evil. In 1750, the world's first spinal hospital was opened in Switzerland. It treated children who suffered from scoliosis and other various spinal afflictions. The world's first ever back brace, the Jurymast brace, was also developed here.

In the mid 19th century, Jules Guerin developed a back brace made from plaster of Paris. The procedure proved to be very successful and very popular among patients with scoliosis but many of his colleagues disliked his method of repairing scoliosis and had him exiled to Belgium. 

It was not until the 1900s that scientists actually begun ways of trying to heal scoliosis rather than simply weaken the effects. 

In 1880, Lewis Sayre developed a new kind plaster of Paris cast: one that could be used and applied whilst standing up. They were carefully applied whilst the patient stood up via a type of suspension device. The idea was that by walking around whilst in the plaster cast, the rotation of such an activity would place the deformed section of the spine back into place.














1895 allowed for the first ever scoliosis x-ray to be developed. This has helped to better understand what a deformed spine affected by scoliosis actually looked like from inside of the body. This helped paved the way for technology relating to helping people with scoliosis, such as better defined x-rays, faster healing processes and less painful operation percussions.

In 1911, the world's first attempt at spinal fusion was made. It was based around the theory that if you used steel rods preoperative traction jackets, wire and hooks to fuse the spine back into shape, the effects of scoliosis could be minimilised. It was first attempted on a patient with terbukulosis. The patient was then sealed inside of a cast for 6 months in order to ensure the healing process. The operation was scrapped when it was shown that such a procedure had no healing or quality of life benefits, if anything it actually increased the damage and limitations caused by scoliosis.