Bryon Riesch: Communicating with People who are Disabled

Bryon Riesch came to our Tactics II class to discuss with us how to communicate professionally and appropriately to people who are disabled. Riesch has held different jobs throughout his career by working at Northwestern Mutual, R & R Insurance and founded the Bryon Riesch Foundation Fund.  Through all of these different jobs he has not let his disability stop him from achieving greatness.

When Riesch was a freshman at Marquette University he got into an accident and ended up becoming a C5 Quadriplegic. What this means is that Riesch broke his back down to his 5 vertebrate therefore he has no use of his wrists and fingers but can feel his toes. Riesch has pushed through his new disability to be able to graduate from Marquette University with a double major in Marketing and Information Technology.

Riesch spoke to the class with a great amount of poise and passion by being so open to any questions that our class through at him.  He was brutally honest about what he struggles with in his daily life.  Riesch explained to use how he just like a regular person when it comes to loving to go to sporting events and just having a beer with his friends.  His amazing sense of humor and depiction of what a day in his world is like was remarkable.

The people who have supported Riesch through his hard times of being in the hospital for 3 months are the people who Riesch is so grateful for having in his life.  He was so thankful to have the wonderful people of Goodwill be able to assistant him when finding a job in addition to his wonderful family. Riesch wants to be a person that helps others which is why he created the Byron Riesch Paralysis Fund. His organization was created in 2001 and had a large golf outing that raised over $100,000. There is now a run/walk every year and to date the organization has raised over $2 million.  The organization has donated $1 million to the Wisconsin Medical College for funding to find ways to help people with disabilities.

The overall message that Riesch wanted to provide to our class was that people with disabilities are people too.  They want to talk to you and don’t be afraid to ask them if they need help.  People with disabilities want to feel independent within their own world, which is generally their main struggle but they know that they will need special assistance when it comes to some things.

If you would like to be a part of the Byron Riesch Paralysis Fund please access the website at http://www.brpf.org/ to learn more.  Also don’t forget to follow the fund on Facebook.