positive outlook.

Wheelchair-bound Shelia Kitchens -- who was speaking yesterday at the launch of Access Awareness Week -- urged the public to use their words carefully and be positive.

"The words in your mouth can make a difference,'' Ms Kitchens explained.

"They can uplift or tear down, bring happiness or sadness.'' The 23-year-old American talked of how being positive had helped her.

"I was walking two years ago, now I'm sitting down,'' she said. "I had a choice to be either miserable or happy. I chose to be happy.'' And she said she believed that everything happened for a reason.

For example, Ms Kitchens said she had always wanted to participate in the Miss Georgia pageant, but never had the correct credentials. However, once in a wheelchair she was able to enter the Wheelchair Miss Georgia Pageant where she was second runner-up.

"A lot of my dreams have been able to come true because of my disability,'' she added.

Access Awareness Week was officially opened yesterday at City Hall by Government and Community Services Minister Yvette Swan.

Held at 1 p.m., the programme opened with musical selections from local talents Toni Robinson and Nhoj Steede.

Jean Howes, who has been blind since a childhood accident, then gave a short talk in which she emphasised the importance of the week's theme "Go on and Live''.

She was followed by Ronald Lightbourne who read a biography of the late Margaret Carter from the book "An Isle so Long Unknown''.

Ms Carter, along with Willard Fox, founded the Bermuda Physically Handicapped Association in the early 1960s.

She is credited for the wheelchair ramps at City Hall along with many other improvements throughout the Island which benefit the physically challenged. As part of this week's celebrations an open panel discussion on the lives of the physically disabled will be held on Thursday night at 7 p.m. at St. Paul's Centennial Hall.

BE AWARE! -- Shooting victim Shelia Kitchens speaking yesterday.