Man with cerebral palsy starts ADAPT organization in Charleston

By Chandra Broadwater
Staff writer

His purpose in life is to fight for disabled people like himself. Chris Huffman thinks that an ADAPT chapter in Charleston is just what the community needs.

“God put me here for a reason,” said Huffman, 26, as he wheeled across the green carpet in his home just across the Roane County border. “There are a lot of people in the Charleston community with disabilities. And we’re going to fight for their rights, for legislation, I’ll go to the governor, what have you. I’m going to help them.”

Americans with Disabilities for Attendant Programs Today is a national activist organization for people with developmental disabilities, like Chris who has cerebral palsy.

It works to change the long-term care system for disabled people. The program also is working to start a national attendant care service and to free people from nursing homes and other institutions.

Until Huffman started one in Charleston with some help from his fiancée, Peggy Parsons, who also has cerebral palsy, the only other chapter was in Morgantown. That group has existed since 1997.

ADAPT Charleston had its first meeting in October. The people who met with Huffman and Parsons talked about what they thought was most important — accessing parks, sidewalks, receiving the proper advocacy services — to them in the southern part of the state.

On Feb. 14, the group will have its first rally with members from Morgantown in the governor’s conference room in the Capitol from 2-6 p.m. The purpose is to show support and to educate people about Terri Schiavo, a Florida woman on life-support who has been at the center of debate for several years.

“We were really happy to hear that Chris wanted to start a chapter; it’s really needed down there,” said Vicki Shaffer, an ADAPT organizer in Morgantown.

“That’s where everything happens,” she said. “We have to travel [to Charleston] so much, and it was such a help for him to do that.”

In addition to his love of helping people, Huffman decided to organize an ADAPT chapter to fulfill a requirement for the Medicaid waiver program from which he receives services.

The MR/DD, or mental retardation and/or developmental disabilities waiver program, helps train disabled people to become more independent. A care worker assesses a person’s goals and living situation, and a program is developed to help him or her become more mobile, receive help with finances and work on daily living skills.

As part of the waiver, Huffman also has to take part in some sort of day program. While some people go to school, Huffman decided to start ADAPT Charleston.

He also likes to make it clear that he’s not mentally retarded. “Just the DD part,” he said of the waiver program title with a smile.

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“They are empowering themselves instead of waiting for other people to do it for them,” said Rob Riser, a care worker with REM, a private group that works with people like Huffman through the waiver program.

“That’s the whole point of the program,” Riser said. “To work with folks like Chris so they can be as self-sufficient as possible.”

With the help of Riser, Huffman has been living on his own for the past three years. He’s loved every minute of it, and now doesn’t have to rely so much on his parents or caregivers.

“Just because we’re in wheelchairs, we also have the right to live to the fullest extent,” Huffman said. “That’s my goal in life.”

For more information on ADAPT Charleston, call 965-9028. For information on ADAPT WV, visit www.labs.net/adapt on the Internet.

To contact staff writer Chandra Broadwater, use e-mail or call 348-5194.