Alexandra McArthur in her Davidson College office (David Boraks/DavidsonNews.net)

By DAVID BORAKS
DavidsonNews.net

Alexandra McCarthur began using a wheelchair three years ago, as a junior at Davidson College. Although she was still reasonably mobile, her muscular dystrophy was progressing and she knew a wheelchair would make it easier to travel.

She graduated cum laude from Davidson in 2009. Today, she is a leadership development fellow at Davidson, and the wheelchair makes it possible to do her job and contribute to the work of her office. Still, the charismatic 22-year-old says it’s hard to think of herself as a person in a wheelchair. So she struggled earlier this year as she contemplated entering the Ms. Wheelchair North Carolina pageant.

“I struggled with whether to enter the pageant, and putting the label of someone who uses a wheelchair on myself,” Ms. McArthur said in an interview. “To claim it in such a public way was interesting.”

In April, Ms. McArthur was crowned Ms. Wheelchair North Carolina 2010 at a pageant in Asheville. This week, she is in Grand Rapids, Mich., where competition for Ms. Wheelchair America 2011 wraps up with a crowning ceremony Saturday night. The week of competition has included three interviews and a 2-minute platform speech, among other things.

Alexandra McArthur, Ms. Wheelchair NC 2010

The pageants are an advocacy program for people with disabilities, and winners become spokespeople for disability issues. The state pageant had a handful of contestants. Judges looked at personal accomplishments and achievements, communications skills in dealing with the media, peers and civic groups, and on their platforms for advocating on behalf of people with disabilities.

Muscular dystrophy is a condition in which muscles gradually weaken. Ms. McArthur’s older sister, 2006 Davidson graduate Park McArthur, also has the disease. Park, is now 25, and an artist and advocate for people with disabilities.

It’s extremely rare for siblings to share the disease, Alexandra McArthur said. In her case, she began to experience weakness in her hips and legs. She can walk with railings, or on a person’s arm. But she says “the wheelchair is extremely freeing.”

The condition is not a factor in Ms. McArthur’s job. She is a leadership development fellow in the Chidsey Center for Leadership Development at Davidson College, which offers a variety of programs to help students develop their own leadership styles and philosophies.

Ms. McArthur has built her platform around employment and improving the workplace for people with disabilities.

Last month was the 20th anniversary of the Americans With Disabilities Act, and she wants to spread the word to employers that fears about the cost of accommodating disabled workers are unnecessary. It’s often cheaper and easier than employers expect, she said. In some cases, needed changes may be as simple as a special chair or computer monitor, a push-button doorway, or making a pamphlet available in braille.

Just as important, she says, is that the opportunity for people with and without disabilities to interact in the workplace. She says “meaningful inclusion” can help both understand one another.

“My being employed gives my coworkers access to something they wouldn’t have otherwise,” she said. That is, “to have continued contact with people with disabilities, in a day-by-day, very practical way.”

Ms. McArthur said she raised the $1,500 entry for this weekend’s pageant from family and friends, as well as a grant from the Wachovia/Wells Fargo Foundation. Ms. McArthur said she was excited “to bond with other contestants and get to know some people who also happen to be in wheelchairs.”

Regardless of Saturday’s result, Ms. McArthur plans to spend a lot of the next year visiting businesses.

She said Davidson College has been very accommodating for people with disabilities. “It’s very ready to learn and adapt new ideas,” she said. But she said some responsibility also falls on disabled people. “It’s up to the person to clearly articulate what they need.”

She said her own employer, Davidson College, and supervisor, Julia Baker Jones, take a broad view of accommodation.

“She says everyone has things they have to sort out at work. … (Disabilities) are just another thing that we figure out.”

MORE INFORMATION

Ms. Wheelchair America website

Ms. Wheelchair North Carolina website

Davidson College Chidsey Center for Leadership Development

Americans With Disabilities Act home page, ada.gov

Park McArthur’s website.

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