By MAX SHOWALTER
Journal & Courier, Lafayette, Indiana
March 26, 2008
For the past 27 years, Landon Turner has spent his waking hours in a wheelchair.
A star of the 1981 Indiana University basketball team, the Indianapolis native is paralyzed from the chest down as a result of injuries he sustained in a car wreck only four months after helping the Hoosiers win the NCAA championship.
"I've been stared at all my life. Being 6-foot-10, and now being 4-foot-6 in this wheelchair, people stare at me," Turner told nearly 100 people who attended a breakfast Tuesday in Lafayette for business and community leaders to observe March as Disabilities Awareness Month.
"I don't like the word disabled. I just can't walk. Some people can't think ... some can't see, some can't hear.
"Being a winner and never giving up makes me strive to do my best. When you don't feel good about yourself you don't give 100 percent to be your best."
According to the National Organization on Disability, 54 million men, women and children have disabilities in America, and two-thirds of the adult population of people with disabilities want to and can work.
"I personally feel it is every employer's responsibility to give people a chance," said store manager Tom Frey. "Do it. Don't hesitate. They'll be your best employee."
Nine years ago, Bob Harvey, deluxe book module supervisor with R.R. Donnelley & Sons Co. in Crawfordsville, hired a person with disabilities through a program operated by Child Adult Resource Services Inc.
"She has worked herself into the mainstream and is soon to be married," Harvey said. "There was some concern because of the variety of work we do. Could this individual learn to multitask? She is one of the leaders."
Turner is not surprised to hear about people with disabilities who excel.
"Don't hesitate to help people who are 'in a situation.' They would like to give back to their community," he told the business executives who attended the meeting. "You can learn from that person. We must live each day, each hour and each minute to the fullest."