Nathan Hauch says as a child a woman
once told him he would be nothing but a drain on the public purse.
But at 23, Hauch will tell you that comments like hers, which
he still gets quite often, inspire him to continue to do as much
as he can for his community.
“Every setback presents an opportunity,” he says. “What
matters is how one responds.”
A champion for minority causes, the Centretown resident’s
days are packed as he tries to balance university life and community
activism with the added challenge of having both cerebral palsy
and severe to profound hearing loss.
Hauch uses either a scooter or a wheelchair to get around because
cerebral palsy affects his muscle control.
As he peruses the stacks in Carleton University’s library,
the basket on Hauch’s red scooter is filled with textbooks.
Hauch is studying for a bachelor of arts at Carleton with a double
major in humanities and political science — a goal he says
wasn’t always a reality.
Hauch was born three months premature. After one of his lungs
failed, his brain was deprived of oxygen long enough to cause
brain damage. Hauch couldn’t talk until he was five.
As a kid, Hauch was not always happy being different.
“I was trying to pretend that my disability didn’t
exist.” Hauch remembers wanting to be “just Nathan.”
His mother, Linda, also remembers his desire to be like everyone
else. She and her husband tried to teach Hauch to use sign language
but it never caught on.
“He just kind of made it clear that he wanted to talk,”
she says.
Hauch and his parents took aural rehabilitation classes at the
Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario. Instead of using
sign language to communicate, the class taught Hauch to make
the best of what hearing he did have.
Embracing Hauch’s desires to be “just Nathan,”
his parents enrolled him in a regular kindergarten class with
a teacher who spoke clearly to her students.
It’s this kind of support and encouragement that Hauch wants
to make sure other people can have available to them.
“I really believe that we’re all inherently responsible
for each other,” he says.
He recently received the Dr. John Davis Burton Award. The award
is given to a post-secondary student in Ottawa for helping to
integrate people with disabilities into the academic community.
Hauch’s experiences, both good and bad, inspire the work
he was recognized for.
“People can say cruel things,” says Hauch.
Someone once asked him at an automatic teller if he knew how
to use it. It’s hard to ignore demeaning comments like those,
but Hauch knows no one gets a free ride: “While life is
not easy, it’s what you make of it.”
Hauch is the co-chair of the Ontario NDP’s lesbian, gay,
bisexual and transgender (LGBT) committee.
He is also the LGBT co-ordinator for the federal NDP’s youth
wing. Both organizations help keep the party in touch with the
community.
Active with the NDP since 1999, Hauch is proud of the private
members’ bill, introduced in May, that would include gender
identity as grounds for a human rights violation.
Hauch is also pleased with the recent passing of the same-sex
marriage bill. “It was just tremendous to finally see it
come to reality,” he says.
Hauch also volunteered as an outreach co-ordinator at Pink Triangle
Youth Services in Ottawa, where he often dealt with kids with
poor self-esteem who hadn’t yet publicly revealed their
sexuality.
It was worth it, he says, to watch kids go from being too scared
to set foot inside the centre to being comfortable enough to
talk about their sexuality.
Hauch is both gay and Christian, but he makes it work.
“I don’t see it as an oxymoron,” he says. “I
believe that God made me as a gay person.”
When he came out about his sexuality, Hauch received a lot of
support from his family and friends.
“Life is enough of a struggle without that kind of judgment,”
his mother says. “I want my children to be happy. I want
them to be who they are.”
His church was also supportive. But Hauch admits it helped that
his father was the minister.
Hauch is modest about his most recent award. “I felt like
the award didn’t just belong to me but also to the people
who helped me along the way,” he says. “Everybody who
stands up for the community makes a difference.”
At Carleton University’s Paul Menton Centre, Nancy McIntyre
works with Hauch to make sure his needs are met so university
life is possible.
“He is one of the best advocates for people with disabilities
that I have ever met,” says McIntyre, who nominated Hauch
for the award. “I’m very proud of him.”
Hauch relies heavily on his hearing aid, because without it he’d
be completely deaf.
His professors usually wear a special microphone that amplifies
their voice and transmits it to an FM receiver in Hauch’s
ear.
It takes a lot of energy to listen intently for long periods
of time and Hauch finds discussion groups to be a challenge because
more than one person is talking at once.
Having to work even harder to hear what everyone else hears can
tire him out: “Suddenly, without warning, I could be completely
exhausted,” he says.
Hauch also has a learning disability where he has trouble
deciphering patterns. Multiple-choice tests printed on computer-generated
Scantron sheets are especially challenging.
Sean McKenny, president of the Ottawa District Labour Council,
hired Hauch to work for the summer of 2002.
“He has such a positive influence in everything he’s
doing,” says McKenny.
As part of a research project for the labour council, Hauch had
to interview McKenny’s 83-year-old father, who worked as
part of the lumber industry in the Ottawa Valley.
McKenny says his father isn’t much of a talker, but when
Hauch interviewed him “he said stuff to Nathan that I didn’t
even know about — and I’m his son.”
“He’s got this ability to make people feel so comfortable,”
says McKenny. “He makes every one at ease.”
McIntyre says people are comfortable with Hauch because he genuinely
cares about what they are saying.
“He is interested in you as a person,” she says. “He’s
one of those rare people that really pays attention.”
But Hauch insists he is just an ordinary guy with extraordinary
support. He enjoys his nights out with friends as much as he
enjoys his own space.
Hauch lives by himself in an apartment in Chinatown, an area
he describes as vibrant and friendly. He is grateful to be able
to live on his own, something that would not have been possible
a short while ago. Buses, for one thing, have only recently become
accessible in Ottawa.
Hauch often forgets about his differences until he faces a barrier,
like an inaccessible store.
“That’s when I realize, ‘oh yeah, I’m disabled,’”
he says.
His mother says he is always thinking of ways to fix the problems
he sees: “I never know where’s he going next.”
For now, Hauch is settling in for a long month of exams and final
papers. However, that won’t discourage him from enjoying
the finer points in life.
His Saturday morning ritual will continue when it can. Hauch
treasures the weekends when he has time to read the Saturday
edition of the Globe and Mail while enjoying a coffee and a few
chocolate chip cookies downtown at Planet Coffee.
Over the years he’s realized his disabilities might be more
apparent from time to time but they will never define him. “We
all have challenges,” he says. “But I know who I am.” |