Mary Smith¹

Mary Smith was living a typical life. She was an advertising executive for a major company, renting a great two-bedroom apartment, and was engaged to be married when her life took an unexpected turn. Hit by a drunk driver on her way home from work one evening, Mary spent the next several months in a coma. When she regained consciousness, her brain had been damaged because of a lack of oxygen following the accident. After an extensive stay in the hospital and rehabilitation center, Mary experienced a remarkable recovery. However, because of her Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), her short-term memory was impaired. Yet, on the street no one would notice Mary's differences. According to Mary, people generally just thought that she was "flighty". Frequently, she would not remember meeting people or conversations that she had just had minutes before; however, she did not "look" disabled.

While in the hospital, the social workers had qualified Mary for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), however, this amount was significantly less than what Mary had made working and it was difficult for her to grow accustomed to her new financial circumstances. Over the next few years, Mary frequently spent more than her SSDI check and her credit card debt grew to nearly $20,000. Mary's life took a downward spiral and she resorted to alcohol to cope. As Mary explained, "It was easier for people to think my problems were because I was a drunk and it was easier for me to blame everything on the booze, rather than accept that my life would be different because I was disabled. It was very hard for me to admit that I was disabled and would have to find a new way to live."

Before Mary came to terms with her disability, her financial situation forced her to deal with her immediate concerns- paying the bills. Joining Alcoholics Anonymous was the first step, yet even at meetings, she continued to hide her disability. With her drinking under control, she decided to enroll in a program designed to help people start their own business. Mary knew that she was great at designing advertisements and felt she could still do the work- if she could form her own business. She started attending a 14-week class on self-employment at a local microenterprise organization.

Mary immediately ran into trouble with the class. She had difficulty concentrating for the 3-hour long classes, would frequently forget her "homework", and while she had plenty of great ideas, she could not remember them when she sat down to develop her business plan. The program director told Mary that she lacked focus and that she should re-enroll when she was "serious" about starting her own business.

Mary told the director about her disability and explained how it affected her memory. The director told her that they were only interested in working with people that showed "potential". He told Mary that they did not have the resources to waste on someone that needed extra help. At the time, she did not know how to ask for reasonable accommodations or even what to ask for. "I thought it was all my problem- that if I could just find a way to concentrate, I could do it. But, the harder I tried, the worse it would get and I would get so frustrated."

Then Mary met Simon. Simon also had a TBI and showed Mary new ways of dealing with her disability. Simon carried a PDA that provided reminders for all his appointments and he would jot down notes of all his conversations and even personal descriptions of individuals, so that the next time he met the person, he could look them up and remember where they had met before and what they had discussed. Simon showed Mary that all the ideas that she had for her business could be stored electronically and then retrieved later.

Mary is not angry at the microenterprise organization, but thinks that they should have been more accommodating of her disability. "I was willing and eager to try different things, but as soon as I told them about my brain injury, they shut the door." Today, Mary and Simon have decided to go into business together. Simon is great with accounting and loves the concrete details of working with numbers. Mary is the artistic visionary, preferring bright colors and simple themes to convey messages in her advertisements. While still in the start-up phase, their future looks as bright as Mary's designs.

1 The name of this month's profile has been changed and organizational names have been intentionally left out in respect to confidentiality