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Showing Ability To Encourage Others

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By LAURA KINSLER

The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 5, 2008

HUNTER'S GREEN - When Shari Wilson was completing her biomedical science degree at the University of South Florida, she dreamed of being a doctor.

Then, she let someone else determine her destiny.

She had taken the Medical College Admission Test and planned to go to medical school. She started interning with a doctor, who discouraged her from pursuing a career in medicine.

"He just started talking about how I should think about lab work," Wilson said. "He said I could never be a surgeon because I couldn't bring my wheelchair into an operating room because it wasn't sterile."

He convinced her that patients wouldn't feel comfortable with a doctor who was in a wheelchair. She gave up her dream.

Now at age 27, Wilson has another dream. Crowned in April as Ms. Wheelchair Florida, she will travel to Rockville, Md., later this month to compete in the national pageant.

Unlike traditional beauty pageants, Ms. Wheelchair America is not a contest to select the most attractive person. The 26 state titleholders will be judged on evening wear and talent competitions, but the primary challenge comes during the interviews.

"We're not going to be parading around in bikinis," Wilson said.

The competition is based on advocacy, achievement, communication and presentation to select the most accomplished and articulate spokeswoman for people with disabilities.

Wilson takes her advocacy role seriously. She recently attended her first meeting of the Mayor's Alliance for Persons with Disabilities. The alliance toured the Tampa Theatre, which recently remodeled its restrooms and removed seats to accommodate people in wheelchairs.

"It was her first meeting, but she jumped right in and volunteered to work on our next project," said Ross Silvers, the mayor's representative with the alliance.

She also spent time working for the Florida Alliance for Assistive Services and Technology at Tampa General Hospital. The organization helps patients acquire everything from wheelchair conversion vans to large-print playing cards.

"My platform is inclusion," Wilson said. "When I was in school, I had friends who were very isolated. Even during a pep rally, when everyone was having fun, all the kids in wheelchairs would be off to the side."

She hopes to put her platform in practice next year as a middle school science teacher. She is pursuing a master's degree in education from National-Louis University.

"My mother is a teacher," she said. "I started substitute teaching a sixth-grade science class, and I just fell in love with it."

Even when children with disabilities are mainstreamed in the classroom, they face social hurdles. Most people are uncomfortable asking someone why he is in a wheelchair, Wilson said.

"People are afraid or don't know how to approach someone with a disability," Wilson said. "I would rather they just ask."

Wilson began experiencing severe muscle weakness around age 9. One minute she was playing, the next she collapsed.

"It felt like my legs were asleep," she said. "All of a sudden, I couldn't stand up."

After multiple doctors' visits, she was diagnosed with dermatomyositis, a rare autoimmune disease that causes skin rashes and weakness in the legs and arms.

"To this day, they don't know how it came about," Wilson said. "There's only a handful of people in the country who have it, and I think I know all of them."

If she takes the title, Wilson would be the third Floridian to be crowned Ms. Wheelchair USA. The pageant takes place July 21-27. For information or to vote online, visit www.mswheelchair america.org.

Reporter Laura Kinsler can be reached at (813) 865-4844 or lkinsler@tampatrib.com.

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