Empowering People with Cerebral palsy: the Stasism project
Stasism is an innovative and new social online platform exclusively for people with cerebral palsy. The platform offers video games that enable users to do physical activity in a creative, social and fun way.
Find out more here: https://stasism.com/
Last month, Stasism wrote a blog to be shared on GDI Hub platforms:
By Stasism:
Last month was International Day for Persons with Disabilities (IDPD). All of us have a story to tell, a story that is writing itself every day. A story of renewal, of overcoming obstacles, and of triumph. The month after IDPD, we want to share with you some of the stories that we got the chance to know up close in our Stasism interviews.
Elaine Hughes: Cerebral Palsy, Entrepreneurship and Life
We are slowly building a community focused on Cerebral Palsy and video games for children and young adults, catered to their needs. And we are soon about to launch the first revolutionary social platform with therapeutic physical video games made exclusively for people with cerebral palsy. So during this process of building our communities, we’ve started talking to people.
A couple of months ago, I got the chance to ‘’sit down’’ virtually with Elaine Hughes, a successful business owner with cerebral palsy. She was born in 1966 with spastic quadriplegic Cerebral Palsy and most of her childhood was spent in hospitals and surgeries. She wanted to experience so many things and she was lucky enough that her parents encouraged her to. It wasn’t easy, but she immersed herself in her hobbies and books.
When she talks, she always smiles, it’s as if she radiates. She is proud of who she has become and of the lovely family she’s built, and her daughter, I’m sure, will help her move forward with her entrepreneurial spirit. Elaine has created a network for disabled entrepreneurs, a community on Clubhouse, and several businesses and apps.
It seems that Elaine’s biggest drive is helping others.
I think for me, I really dislike inequality. I am very passionate about that. I am happy to be the one who says ‘’let’s move forward’’, and creating more buzz around disabled entrepreneurs. If we change, the others will as well, and if we make a difference, others will. I put things out there and people have seen people change, they want to be more inclusive. Having cerebral palsy made me unique, it made me stronger. Because I had cp, I had to adapt differently and think more creatively, and I think if I didn’t have cp, I wouldn’t be as successful as I am.
Elaine Hughes
Cassandra Davis, changing perceptions for parents with a disability
We also had the pleasure to meet Cassandra Davis, a Youtuber mom with Cerebral Palsy who inspires moms and dads around the world. She constantly shares advice and her life moments as a disabled mom and she shared her journey with us.
You can tell childhood hasn’t been easy on her, as kids weren’t always treating her nice, but she learnt who are the ones that are worth worrying about in life, and it’s not those mean kids, but it’s her family and friends.
Growing up, I was teased a lot, pushed into the boys’ bathroom, people would push me over on purpose to see me fall. People didn’t want to be my friend because they were afraid that they would catch cerebral palsy but I was blessed with good friends and family.
Cassandra Davis
Cassandra tells us that it was difficult for her as a young mom to find information on accessible equipment for moms or parenting with a disability. There is not much online on these topics and she is working through her social channels to raise awareness.
And that’s what we, together with our collaborators, are trying to do also. Raising awareness on inclusiveness, on socializing, and on trying out different new methods of therapy, such as play therapy.
Play therapy, a revolutionary platform for people with cerebral palsy
After having researched and studied for 5 years the impact of play therapy on cerebral palsy patients, we have finally been able to put together the first social platform with physical video games for people with cerebral palsy. Cerebral palsy is the most common disability in childhood worldwide. So we would like to give the chance to a happier childhood to millions of children on the globe dealing with this chronic condition.
As therapists, parents and caretakers have long wanted to incorporate something really fun into their day-to-day interaction with children with cerebral palsy, we can now say that this is possible. For children with cerebral palsy, play can offer them joy and happiness, despite the battle they’re fighting every day to be better. But there hasn’t been much talk on it as it is a rather new area.
Therefore we want to bring this into light and let people who are dealing with cerebral palsy in their lives know about accessing a new enticing way of doing therapy. You can now focus on having fun and forget that you’re doing physical therapy! It’s a whole new exciting world for you to explore.
It’s been a month since we celebrated disabled people internationally, we continue to hope that we will be able to share across the world a powerful message. That of unity, tolerance, love, and empowerment for people with disabilities. To learn more about Stasism and find out when it will be available for you, go to stasism.com.
Stasism social links:
You can find Elaine Hughes on her Instagram
You can find Cassandra Davis on her Youtube channel
Thanks to the Global Disability Hub for giving us the opportunity to speak about these amazing stories.
Views expressed in this blog, and references used, belong to the author Stasism, and do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of the Global Disability Innovation Hub and its staff.
