Disabilities' author speaks on inspiration, perception
by Brian DiTullio

VERNON CENTER, Minn. – It’s what people don’t see that generates the most discussion, said Daniel J. Vance, author of the weekly “Disabilities” column run in The Desert Advocate and other papers.

“Feedback affects topics quite a bit,” said Vance. “The topics I thought would be popular aren’t.”

Vance explained specific disabilities are what he gets asked to write about, particularly ones that people are “mocked” for having, for lack of a better term.

“It’s depression, dyslexia,” he said. “People don’t understand it.”

Vance said the frustration people feel over disabilities that are not understood by the general public are what drives his feedback, rather than the more visible handicaps such as someone confined to a wheelchair.

“When people think of disability, they think of people in wheelchairs. Only two million people are in wheelchairs, yet there are 54 million people with some form of disability, according to the last census,” he said.

For example, someone who is blind in one eye or deaf in one ear suffers from a disability, but the average person walking down the street would never notice it. But if someone is suffering from depression, he may be held up for scrutiny, especially if that person is perceived as being successful.

“People will look at that person and ask, ‘What have you got to be depressed about?’”

Finding column ideas presents no problem for Vance.

“If the ideas run dry, I’ve got people I can call,” said Vance, referencing a number of contacts made over the years. “With 54 million people, I could probably dial the phone randomly and find someone.”

Even though he has no shortage of topics, getting his column published on a regular basis in many papers is difficult.

While his weekly column has appeared in more than 200 newspapers, it only appears in 15 dailies and 20 weeklies on a regular basis.

“People are a little hesitant to take my column at first because they think people with disabilities will complain, or that I’m militant,” he said. “That’s not it at all. The column is about presenting people as people.”

That presentation always brings a lot of feedback from papers he appears in, according to Vance, yet some publishers won’t carry his column unless it focuses on someone local.

When it comes to the amount of feedback, Vance said The Desert Advocate generates more feedback than any of the other publications he appears in regularly.

As for his picture, it is a pencil drawing done from a photograph. J.R. Smith, a graphic design specialist working for Vance at Connect Business Magazine, created the illustration a few years ago.

Other than his column, Vance edits the business magazine and performs other freelance writing jobs.

Vance and his wife are raising and homeschooling an 11‑year‑old daughter with spina bifida, a neural tube defect that happens in the first month of pregnancy when the spinal column doesn’t close completely, along with a 10‑year‑old son.