Maine Perspective Front Page
Amazing Abilities
When Bill Picard was 11 months old, a pediatrician told his parents to put him in a home for the mentally retarded, forget about him and move on with their lives.
Twenty-eight years later, Picard is about to graduate from the University of Maine. At December commencement, Picard will receive a bachelor's degree in business administration. His concentrations are in management and disability studies.
Picard has cerebral palsy, a condition caused by a lack of oxygen to his brain during birth. Cerebral palsy affects people in different ways. For Picard, it affected his muscle coordination and his speech.
Picard has never let his disability keep him from the many activities he enjoys: dancing, bowling, cheering for the UMaine women's basketball team, repelling off a 100-foot cliff and traveling.
He uses a device called a Liberator to help him communicate and a walker to dance. In miniature golf, he hits the ball with his foot, rather than a golf club. His father made him a special wooden card holder for playing card games and a ramp to slide a bowling ball down the alley.
"I'd like to be treated like everyone else because I am like everyone else," Picard says. "I can do anything I want to do, I just have to think about the way to do it."
Picard, a North Turner native, transferred to UMaine in 1994 from the University of Edinboro in Pennsylvania, where the campus was largely accessible and services for students with disabilities included van transportation to and from classes, assistants and a wheelchair repair shop.
It is different at UMaine. Picard advertised and hired his personal care attendants, academic aids and van drivers. All new buildings are accessible, and existing structures are being renovated according to an ongoing plan to meet Americans with Disabilities Act requirements.
Since being on campus, Picard has made recommendations about how to increase accessibility in the University community. That includes improvements in parking outside his residence hall and in designated seating for persons with disabilities in Alfond Sports Arena.
"UMaine was inexperienced in dealing with people with disabilities," Picard says. "I just may be the first one who was stubborn enough to bring up these issues."
Picard's persistence has helped change some physical barriers to accessibility in the same way that he has changed people's attitudes about disabilities, says Ann Smith, UMaine's coordinator of services for students with disabilities.
"When he first arrived, the campus went from a level of discomfort and fear about how to communicate with this individual to a point where Bill is well known on campus and greeted warmly," Smith says.
"I admit, I was a little nervous when I started working for Bill," says Abby Graffam of Saco, a third-year student majoring in nursing. "I didn't know what his disability entailed and I had never really been around someone handicapped before. I've worked for Bill for a year, helping him with computer stuff, getting ready for bed, and helping him with dinner a few nights a week. He amazes me with his abilities. Most people in his situation would have seen college as an impossible feat. He has conquered it. He's an inspiration. I wish more people would get to know people with disabilities because they're just like everybody else."
During his time at the University, Picard has hired more than 100 student assistants like Graffam. In giving back to the University community, he has served on the Union Board and spoken to student groups, conferences and classes.
Diane Jackson, a graduate assistant pursuing an Ed.D. in higher education accommodations, asked Picard to speak to her class on Adapting Instruction for Students with Disabilities this semester.
"Bill was invited to speak in my class to share his humor, knowledge and technology. I feel very strongly that person-to-person contact is critical when teaching about disability," says Jackson. "The reality of Bill Picard's day has an impact that text and lecture cannot bring to students. It also helps deal with misconceptions about communication differences.
"Bill gave the students confidence to 'just ask' when it comes to communications issues or assistance for persons with disabilities," says Jackson. "He removed the fear of communicating, which will aid (the students in my class) as future teachers."
In the year that Kathryn Shepherd of Gardiner roomed with Picard, it seemed that "he always was getting prepared to do another speech, or to help out other students who didn't know where to turn for help."
"From Bill, I learned that with enough support and love from the people around you, you can do anything," says the fifth-year music education major. "You have to give people a chance and look beyond the disability, because there's someone in there who can do a lot for people.
"Bill is a teacher who has helped a lot of people look harder and find things within themselves," Shepherd says. "He has accomplished more than have most people without disabilities."
During his years at the University, Picard has been one of the most loyal fans of UMaine women's basketball. He spent the past three spring breaks on the road supporting the Black Bears. He has missed only two home games in the three years that he has been at UMaine.
Picard works at the Center for Community Inclusion, Maine's University-affiliated program, updating the center's Website (www.ume.maine.edu/~cci/odis/) with information for students with disabilities who are seeking opportunities for postsecondary education, responding to e-mail, and guest speaking in UMaine classes and at area schools and businesses. Picard is hoping to continue working at the center after graduation. He would also like to design Websites like the one he made for himself (www.umcs.maine.edu/~captainp/). He plans to keep developing his own Website about services for people with disabilities and his motivational speeches, which he hopes to do all over the country.
Two summers ago, Picard completed a 150-hour practicum with UNUM Corp., as part of his concentration in disability studies. He was the first business major to undertake the practicum.
Picard's future is bright, but like any college student, there were times when he thought he wouldn't make it to graduation.
"If I didn't have the support from my family and teachers, I wouldn't have gotten where I am today," Picard says.
Among those Picard looks to for inspiration are his sister Aimee, who next year will be a student in the College of Education and Human Development, and his aunt Kathy, who battled cancer for 10 years and whose strength continues to serve as a model for Picard's life.
Picard says graduation will be a joyful time for him. He will be surrounded by the family that has supported him since birth.
"My parents did go on with their lives [after I was born], but they took me with them."