Jessica Cox: Disabling Her Disability

The doctors don’t exactly know why Jessica was born without arms. Sonograms and other prenatal tests did not reveal this rare congenital condition. However, from infancy her feet became her hands. Like all children, she went through the various stages of development. She learned to feed herself and write with her feet. Throughout childhood, she participated in many activities including swimming, gymnastics, and tap dancing. Jessica started tae kwon-do when she was ten, earning her first black belt at fourteen in the International Tae Kwon-Do Federation. She rejoined American Tae Kwon-Do Association in college and earned a second black belt.




When first learning to drive, Jessica was encouraged to use special modifications. Even after her car was modified, she decided to remove them and drive without. She holds an unrestricted driver’s license.

As an undergraduate at the University of Arizona, Jessica attended classes taking notes with her feet. At 25 words per minute, Jessica was able to type out her papers with a regular computer keyboard on the floor.




Jessica’s greatest challenges are not the ordinary daily tasks required for her to live independently. Putting in contact lenses, washing and brushing her hair, and fixing breakfast in the morning are all tasks that come second-nature to her as they would to anyone else. Her greatest triumph in life stands far above any physical feat. It is her unrepentant regard for herself a whole person, her high degree of self-acceptance that gives her the freedom and power to insist that society accept her, too, just as she is. She has even obtained her pilots certificte and enjoys flying very much



With one foot manning the controls and the other delicately guiding the steering column, Cox, 25, soared to achieve a Sport Pilot certificate. Her certificate qualifies her to fly a light-sport aircraft to altitudes of 10,000 feet.

Paralympian categories help realize dreams

Vancouver - Olympic organizers who categorize athletes by gender and sometimes weight have it easy compared to their Paralympic counterparts.

At the Paralympics, medal competitors are grouped using a complex classification system that even the International Paralympic Committee's medical director admits is "a work in progress.''

Paralympic athletes are divided into six impairment groups to ensure - like Olympic competition - winning is determined by skill, fitness and mental focus.

The impairment groups are classified as amputation, cerebral palsy, visual impairment, spinal injury, intellectual disability, and "les autres,'' or "the others.''

The differing classifications allow Winter Paralympics sports like alpine skiing, cross-country skiing and biathlon to have separate sitting, standing, and visually-impaired gold medallists.

"Classification takes the ability of an athlete, considering his impairment and the limitations that go with the impairment, as the basis of grouping athletes into classes, into groups that have a certain degree of homogeneity,'' said Dr. Peter Van de Vliet, IPC medical and scientific director.

"That allows (athletes) to at least start on an equal basis so that the one athlete that excels in athletic performance is the gold medal winner.''





Amputee athletes have at least one major joint or part of an extremity missing and are classified on whether the impairment is an upper or lower limb. The location of the amputation - whether it's above or below the knee, for example - is also a factor.

Athletes who have cerebral palsy are organized based on the severity of their condition and the muscle groups it involves.

Those with spinal injuries are classified depending on where in the spine the injury occurred. Athletes with spina bifida, a birth defect in the spine, are included in the group.

Intellectually-disabled athletes won't compete in Vancouver but Van de Vliet said Paralympic officials have agreed they'll take part in four events in London in 2012.

"Les autres'' refers to athletes who have impairments that don't fit into the aforementioned categories.

It's up to teams of classifiers to assess each athlete's functional ability. That athlete can be tested numerous times throughout their career if their condition improves or worsens.

For alpine skiing, cross-country skiing and biathlon, athletes who compete in the standing class can have double arm or leg amputation, single arm or leg amputation, or equivalent impairments.

For the sitting class, athletes can have paraplegia or double leg amputation, while those hoping to compete in the visually-impaired events can have either no functional vision, three to five per cent vision, or no more than 10 per cent vision.

A mathematical formula is used to balance out the playing field in these events. An athlete's finish time is calculated with a formula that factors in the severity of the impairment.

As a result, the fastest time might not necessarily win the gold medal.

"I consider classification as a work in progress,'' Van de Vliet said.

The key, he said, is setting such guidelines well in advance of the Games so athletes aren't struck with last-minute surprises and can focus on their performance.

While some sports are only open to those with the same impairment, other sports, such as sledge hockey, allow athletes from different disability groups to compete together.




In some Summer Paralympics team sports, such as wheelchair basketball, athletes are given a score of one, two or three and the team is required to have a certain point requirement on the floor at all times.

That is not the case for Winter Paralympics team sports like sledge hockey and wheelchair curling.

Terrie Moore, co-chair of the Canadian Paralympic Committee's classification task force, said while the process remains complex, it's also as good as it's ever been.

"I think that classification is the cornerstone to Paralympic sport,'' she said. "It's what allows athletes with a variety of different impairments to participate in sports that they love and to excel.''

Moore said athletes who have neurological impairments can be among the most difficult to assess, while amputees tend to be the easiest.

She said the IPC has made tremendous strides in sport science, allowing far more athletes to live their Paralympic dreams than ever before.

"It's come a long way,'' she said.

"It was very simplistic before and actually excluded a lot of people with a variety of impairments.''

Yes, God, I Can! By Bonnie St. John Deane

During my growing-up years, I lived my life in a mental landscape that I created for myself. In my imagination, I was a strong and graceful runner. I was beautiful and popular, and I could be anything that I wanted to be.

In reality, I had been born with a stunted right leg. My left leg was fully developed and continued to grow, but my right leg was extremely underdeveloped and short. I was unable to walk normally until I was six years old-after I had had surgeries to stiffen my knee so that it wouldn't bend and to remove my right foot so that I could be fitted with an artificial leg.

Living in my imaginary world, I was able to control my thoughts and feelings while I was awake, but during the nights in the hospital, I would scream out in my sleep. A nurse would come to wake me from the nightmares so I could go back to sleep.

Much later in life, I understood what had caused the nightmares. It was only after my stepfather died when I was eighteen that I allowed myself to remember he had molested me. Feeling so much emotional pain and trauma during my early years, I had stuffed the memories of abuse into the darkest corners of my mind.

Escaping the Pain

I escaped the pain through reading and through living in my imagination. I read books at night after everybody else was asleep. I shut myself in the bathroom, turned on the light, and read on the floor. I read in the car and on the playground while other kids jumped rope and played kickball.

Then when I was eight years old, my mother gave me a brochure. On the cover was a silhouette of an amputee skier with this headline: "If I can do this, I can do anything!" I put the brochure away in a box where I kept a lock of my dog's hair and a rock from the Grand Canyon. I didn't realize it then, but the amputee pictured on the cover was showing me what I would someday be able to do.

In junior high school, I didn't feel popular or attractive. I wasn't good in sports, and I was always the last person picked when teams were chosen. The prayer chapel in the Episcopal school I attended became my sanctuary.

I was around fifteen when a friend invited me to go skiing with her and her family. She was kind and upbeat, never questioning that her one-legged friend could ski. This friend changed my life.

Living in the Real World

Resolving to step out of the mental landscape I was creating with my imagination, I began to live in the real world. I wanted to ski! When I first started, I lacked balance and strength, so I leaned over my heavy outrigger-style ski poles. I tried to race using regular poles, but I kept falling. Finally, I threw aside my ski poles, went to the "bunny," or beginners', hill, and learned how to ski with nothing in my hands.

Learning how to ski with just one ski and no poles, I gained a tremendous amount of strength and balance. Then I was able to ski with poles, planting them in the snow so that I could pop up into the air and twist. This was a very exhilarating, free way to ski. In competition, I had to use outriggers, but I learned that they were not a crutch; they were an incredible tool that helped me go all the way to the Olympics and win.

The joy and passion I felt while training for the Olympics helped me discover my spiritual strengths too. At times, I had felt as if I was using prayer as a crutch. Then as I began to reach out more and more to God, I understood that while prayer is an incredible tool that had helped me heal, I had some work of my own to do. Just as I had had to learn to work with the outriggers instead of leaning on them, I had to learn to work with divine power instead of leaning on God.





Releasing the Past to God

I have a wonderful husband now and a precious daughter, but when she turned four-the same age I was when I was molested-many painful memories came back to haunt me. There were times when I felt so down that all I could do was sit and cry. The love I felt from knowing the presence of God is the only thing that pulled me back up.

I could have let those destructive memories and the emotions ruin my family and me, but I began to release them. I went to God in prayer, and God strengthened me so that I could heal.

I am making progress in my recovery, but I still have a way to go. The memories I have experienced in the last couple of years have been more difficult than anything else I have ever had to face. Through turning to God, I am strong enough not only to face those memories but also to overcome them. And I know that because I can do that, I can do anything.


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At sixteen, Bonnie St. John Deane was a young girl with one leg and big dreams. Within five years, she became an Olympic skiing medalist, a Harvard honors graduate, and a Rhodes scholar. Bonnie has worked on Wall Street, in Europe, and in Asia, and she has been an award-winning sales representative for IBM. A writer, speaker, and president of SJD&Co., she also serves as a national spokesperson for Disabled Sports USA. Bonnie has been featured by NBC Nightly News as one of the five most inspiring women in the nation. She currently resides in San Diego with her daughter and husband.