WYSO Youth Radio

Summer is almost here as area schools begin letting out. To kick things off, we’re launching a new season of WYSO Youth Radio. We’ll hear stories from students across Dayton, Springfield, and beyond.

Tobias Ashlock from Ponitz Career Technology Center tells his story this week. He has a condition called Arthrogryposis multiplex congenita, or AMC, which causes stiff joints and limited movement in several parts of the body. In this episode, Ashlock talks with his grandmother, Cheryl Yeager, about what it’s like to live with AMC.

WYSO Youth Radio is produced for the ear and designed to be heard, not read. We strongly encourage you to listen to the audio by clicking on the blue “LISTEN” button above, which includes emotion and emphasis not on the page.

Tobias Ashlock: What was it like raising someone with AMC? Were there, like, big differences between raising an able-bodied child compared to a disabled child?

Cheryl Yeager: Yes, because there were a lot of limitations. You know, you think of childproofing for a baby and a toddler, but it was childproofing for quite a long time. You had to make sure that there was absolutely nothing on the floor or in reaching distance. There were times it was difficult, but overall it’s just like raising any other child.

Ashlock: Was there fear about my life when I was a kid?

Yeager: No, there weren’t any fears; there were struggles, especially when you didn’t want to walk.

There are a lot of things you’re not able to do, but it wasn’t fear, it was just trying to figure out a way that you were able to do things.

Ashlock: Were you happy that I was placed in a general education class instead of a special education class?

Yeager: Oh, definitely.

This is something that we had worked up to from the time that you were at Southview [Child and Family Center].

They put you in with four or five different types of disabled children, and because they realized that you were a lot smarter than these children, you’re more advanced, I should say. They recommended that you go to a regular school. You were also at Gorman [School], where you got a lot of your preschool education that you needed, and you were able to go into kindergarten with a lot of knowledge that most kindergartners did not have.

Ashlock: What do you, as my guardian, expect that I’ll be able to do after high school?

Yeager: I Think you’ll be…I feel you could do anything at a desk. If it’s going out in the field as a scientist, I think that would be quite a few limitations on you because not everything is ADA accessible as we’ve run up against a lot of problems that way in the…even the restaurants we go into, they’re not always ADA accessible. But as far as a field, you have the intelligence to become anything. It’s just going to be the physical limitations.

Ashlock: Last question, are you ready?

Yeager: Okay.

Ashlock: Did you expect more from your other kids than me after high school?

Yeager: No, I hold the same expectations.

Ashlock: Thank you so much for sitting and participating. I appreciate it.

Thank you to Joanne Casale, the Media Arts teacher at Ponitz Career and Technical Center, for making this story happen. WYSO Youth Radio is produced at the Eichelberger Center for Community Voices at WYSO.  WYSO Youth Radio is made possible by supporters like you, the Ohio Arts Council, and the Virginia W. Kettering Foundation.

Sign Up for WYSO’s Daily Newsletter