VCU
AUDIO TRANSCRIPTION
SELF EMPLOYMENT
PRESENTED BY DON WHITTECAR
INTERVIEWED BY:  CARY GRIFFIN

Captioning Provided By:	Caption First, Inc.
					

	>>DON WHITTECAR:  Hi.  My name is Don Whittecar.  And above 
all else, I'm a person with disabilities.  I wasn't always able 
to say that.  
		For many years from age 8 on, I denied my disability.  
Fortunately, I'm an overachiever.  My disability when I am high 
functioning allows me to function very highly.  But when my 
disability is active, I function very severely.  
		It has had ups and downs throughout my life.  I suffer 
from a hereditary neurobiological brain disorder.  My education 
went in two different directions.  I have graduate degrees and 
postgraduate education in both psychology education and in fine 
arts.  I decided to make psychology education my primary 
vocation, which led me to do research, social, educational, 
primarily on the aspect of child abuse.  
		In October of 1989 the stress of the work that I was 
doing and the fact that I was taking my work home with me -- I 
adopted children who were disabled because they had been victims 
of abuse.  The stress of that became too much.  It activated my 
disability to a degree that had never occurred before in my life 
and put me in permanent disability.  
		My doctors advised that I could never go back to doing 
research and that I needed to find a new profession.  
Fortunately as I indicated, I have graduate degrees, also, in 
fine arts.  I taught art to architecture, interior design and 
fine arts majors at Kansas State University.  And those doors 
started swinging open for me.  
		I was led by my doctors to vocational rehabilitation 
through my disability where I was initially met with real 
obstacles to overcome.  I was specifically told that as a person 
with disabilities, I could not be self-employed.  Fortunately, 
there was a worker there, Jeannie Devero, who became my 
caseworker, who became at that point my strongest advocate.  And 
she literally took on the system and advocated for me.  
		One of the strongest things that they did was they 
administered an inventory that assesses a person's skills, 
adaptability, to become self-employed.  And I scored quite 
highly on that, which convinced other people who had rejected my 
proposal to finally buy into it.  
		From VR I was referred to the institute on rural 
disabilities at the University of Montana where I came in 
contact with Cary Griffin and Roger Shelly who again -- both of 
them saw the potential that I had and contributed significantly 
to me receiving the resources that I needed not only to purchase 
equipment but to gain expertise to make contacts.  They guided 
me to the community resource development center where an 
individual there who had an MBA worked with me on putting 
together a three- and five-year business plan, something that is 
really crucial for establishing a business.  
		Since then I established initially what was -- is known 
as Taiowa Images.  I work a lot with American Indians.  And 
Taiowa is a term that literally translated means:  All things 
are part of an incomprehensible totality that always was and 
always will be.  
		That's part of the reason why I took that word for my 
business.  As a slogan for Taiowa Images, we have used the first 
line from a Karen and Richard Carpenter song:  Bless the beast 
and the children.  That line goes on to say:  For in this world 
they have no voice.  They have no choice.  And so it is with 
those of us with disabilities in all too many instances.  
		After establishing Taiowa Images, I carved out a niche 
where I did still photography of animal behavior for wildlife 
biologist research studies.  Those efforts took me to work on 
the wolf restoration project in Yellowstone National Park;  Orca 
Research Project on San Juan Island in Washington;  Wild horses 
in Arizona, New Mexico, Montana, Oregon and Washington.  Now I 
am working on the Mexican Wolf Recovery Project in Arizona, New 
Mexico.  
		I was led to those opportunities because of a network.  
Because of letting people know my needs and my desires.  
Sometimes it can be a very circuitous route.  For instance to be 
involved with the Orca Research Project, I was first 
volunteering my time and my efforts with the Teller Wildlife 
Refuge in Montana where Kate Wimmer, who was the director of 
education, had done her undergraduate and graduate work at Ripon 
College in Wisconsin and had as her professor Bob Otis.  
		Bob is an animal behavioral psychologist and has for 14 
years been conducting research on orca behavior on San Juan 
Island.  So it was through Kate coming to me and saying:  You 
and Bob Otis really need to work together in opening that door.  
		That's how most of the successes that I have had have 
occurred.  It's not my abilities, it's my availability, that has 
really contributed to my success in this area.  
		I think that one of the most important things -- and I 
know that it's so important because it was lacking in a close 
knit circle for me, one of the most important things that we as 
persons with disabilities can have is a supportive network.  
Whether that is family, friends, a very caring caseworker, other 
people.  
		Cary Griffin, Roger Shelly, Jeannie Devero stand out as 
my heroes and really gave me the sense that:  Yes, I could do 
this.  They supported me.  It's very easy to become depressed, 
to lack self-esteem as a person with disabilities.  Not only 
through society but through the support delivery systems that we 
as disabled persons you know have to seek out and use.  It's the 
rare individual that I was fortunate enough to come in contact 
with that can open doors and make things happen positively for 
what we do as persons. 
		Additionally regardless of what occupation you're going 
into, it's essential that you know what you're doing.  In my 
visiting with Cary, I have related to him that when I'm out 
filming with a camera like this, it attracts a lot of attention.  
They are not common.  They are very specialized in what they do.  
		And people constantly come up to and say:  Oh, you must 
be a professional photographer.  And I say:  Well, you have to 
qualify the term professional.  But they say:  You know, I would 
love to be able to do what you do.  
		And immediately I bring them up short and say:  You know, 
your vision of what I do is you being on vacation with one 
camera hanging around your neck and taking snapshots.  When I go 
into the field to work, I'm usually carrying 40 to 50 pounds of 
camera equipment in a backpack.  Frequently I have hiked 18 to 
22 miles into particular places, slept on the ground overnight, 
to be able to catch that first light of sun in the morning to 
get the shot that I want.  It's difficult to learn all the 
facets to my trade and what I do.  But it is essential in order 
for me to succeed.  
		I compete on an even playing field with those persons who 
do not have disabilities.  And that's the way I want it.  

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