But anyway, wow, it is such an immense（极广大的） honor to get to be here and share some really important information that I hope truly（真实地） is impactful and is an idea worth spreading. Would it surprise you to know that there are over 42 million individuals living in the United States that also have a disability（残疾）? According（使一致） to Pew Research Center and the US Census（人口普查） Bureau, there are 42.5 million individuals, non-institutionalized, that are currently living with a disability. That's nearly 13% of the American population. Let that sink in for a moment. 13%.

  Now, as if that was not surprising enough, it is also estimated（估计） that nearly all of the 42.5 million individuals that I just mentioned also have a sibling（兄弟） that does not have a disability（残疾） considered neurotypical. There are also some misconceptions（ 误解） that exist about neurotypical siblings（兄弟） as it pertains（适合） to their differently abled brothers and sisters that permeate public and private perceptions. Publicly, many believe that as a neurotypical sibling, you are uniquely（adv独特地） equipped. You're an expert of sorts about differing（使…相异） abilities as a whole, and they speculate（推测） about what life must be like for you. In families, the misconception is that when you are a neurotypical sibling to an individual with a differing ability, you also are fully（充分地） equipped（装备） to one day assume（假定） the full-time role of caregiver and advocate for your differently abled sibling because you'll just know what to do. You'll understand what comes next.

  The truth is neurotypical siblings of individuals with different abilities are not experts and are seldom（ 很少） fully（充分地） equipped（装备） to assume（假定） a full-time role of primary caregiver and advocate. You see, there's a variety of elements that are necessary for the care of the differently abled, and many siblings are thrust（插） into a position that they were not adequately（充分地） equipped（装备） for because they were supposed to just know. I know these statistics and misconceptions about individuals with differing abilities and their neurotypical siblings because I'm one of them. As I mentioned, my name is Dr.D'Shauna Reid, and there's a whole lot of other really interesting things about me, but the most interesting thing is that I am the youngest of four girls. One of my older sisters, Adrienne, was diagnosed（诊断） in the late 1960s with what was then referred to as severe（严格的） mental retardation. We now more appropriately（适当地） refer to it as autism spectrum（光） disorder（混乱）.

  At the time of her diagnosis（诊断）, my parents, Arthur and Dolores Hicks, were a very young married couple living on the combined meager（贫乏的） salaries of an Air Force serviceman and a hospital custodian（管理人）.