Born in 1959, Jeff Grace has lived in Washington all his life, graduating
from high school there when he was 19. In the fall of 1987, Jeff enrolled
at Shoreline Community College in the Seattle area and continues to
take classes there. He lived with his parents until high school when
they could no longer meet his 24-hour care needs. He then moved to the
Seattle United Cerebral Palsy center, where he lived for ten years.
At age 28, Jeff moved into his own apartment and has loved living on
his own ever since.
Here's a video clip of Jeff speaking to an AAC class about his personal
experiences. He is using an alphabet board, pointing to key letters
of the words he is saying, to help us understand him. He also uses a
communication device and a desktop computer to communicate.
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As you can see in the video clips above, Jeff gives presentations to
students to increase public awareness of people with disabilities. Jeff
loves working with students and hopes that his presence shows them how
much he cares about them. By demonstrating all that accomplishes every
day, he wants to help the students learn that they, too, can have productive
lives and careers.
For the past 18 years, Jeff has worked for the Region 4 Field Services
Offices of the Washington State Division of Developmental Disabilities.
He worked there as a mail clerk for his first eight years. When Jeff
wanted to advance further in his job, he developed a proposal that he
presented to his supervisor. He asked for a trial as a consumer advocate
for people with disabilities, and his proposal was accepted. He has
been a Community Worker for the past eight years, working on a variety
of projects around the Seattle area to help people advocate for the
services they need to live better lives. A personal focus for Jeff is
improving the quality and availability of Personal Assistance Services.
He hopes that his efforts will also support people with disabilities
as they learn to become better managers and supervisors of their personal
assistants.
Jeff writes:
“I love my job because I make a difference… and
I love my life! I believe that with patience, persistence and a
lot of hard work people can accomplish whatever they set out in
their mind to do. I believe that people with disabilities are first
and foremost ordinary, typical people. I believe that all people
are a lot more like each other than they are different. Every person
has things that they can and cannot do. Every person is a little
bit unique in his or her own way. I believe that for every difference
that makes us unique, there are some common threads that we all
share. We all share a need for home and community, and to be treated
with dignity and respect. Like you, I value the ability to make
decisions for myself, like where I live, what I do with my time,
and who my friends are. Like you, I enjoy spending time with my
family and friends.”
In his spare time, Jeff enjoys listening to music, talking with his
friends and just going out to have fun. He also enjoys baseball because
“it is so relaxing and you can forget about everything while watching
the game.”
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