Re: the Aug. 13 guest column "It may be hard for others to see, but I'm not defined by my disability."
Aurora Begay shared with us the story of Erin Wilson, who encountered a form of bigotry from her high school orchestra teacher when she was told that "to move up to the next level, (she) needed to have sight to read the notes on the sheet music." It is sobering to think that Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, José Feliciano, Nobuyuki Tsujii, Art Tatum, Diane Schuur and countless other musical legends would have failed an audition at that high school.
How incredibly ironic that the same orchestra may have even played the music composed by Ludwig Von Beethoven, who was completely deaf at the time that he wrote some of the greatest music ever produced! Sometimes we all need a little reminder that the disabled are anything but inferior to the rest of us.
Gregg Sciabica
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Disclaimer: As submitted to the Arizona Daily Star.