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I am a foodie.

I love to shop, buy, cook and eat all kinds of food. I love food so much I went to culinary school to become a professional chef, wanting to open my own caf‚. I had the backing, the ambition and the courage. However, one thing I didn't have was knowledge of the food business. I decided to go to culinary school to see if I could cut it as a chef.

Being disabled and working in a professional kitchen was something not many people with disabilities have done successfully. I learned why during the first week of school.

I couldn't lift and carry the 35-gallon stock pots to the prep tables. I couldn't carry a 3-foot sheet pan full of hot bread. I couldn't see above the third shelf in the freezer to gather ingredients.

But that didn't stop me. I worked with the culinary school to make the student kitchen somewhat accessible. The engineering school made me a rolling prep table that I could get my wheelchair under. The school maintenance department lowered one of the huge gas ranges, so I could reach the back burners. My teachers instructed my classmates to take turns carrying pots and pans, gathering food and generally being my legs for me.

Once that was all put into place, I had a blast. Cooking school was the best educational experience I've ever had. Not only did I get to cook gourmet food - I got to eat it. Classmates who were my helpers became close friends, all working toward the same dream: to be a professional chef.

Cooperation is the only way people with disabilities can have a chance at obtaining their dreams in the academic world. It wasn't the physical accommodations or the flexibility in my course schedules that made me successful. It was the attitude of the school and students that made my culinary education go from a dream to reality.

No one ever complained or gave me special treatment. I had to wash hundreds of dirty dishes and mop the floors after class. No one talked to me as if I were a 2-year-old who was hard of hearing, either.

I worked just as hard, did the same back-breaking work and had the same pressures to make a perfect souffl‚. The people involved in my education made sure I could participate in everything the able-bodied students did without animosity, jealously or bigotry.

Equal opportunity is all the disability community desires. Removing physical barriers is only half of the issue. Removing the mental barriers is more difficult but means so much more than a new ramp.

I learned something else - working in a restaurant is hard work.

I never did open a cafe, but I did own a cheesecake shop for four years. I am a professional chef - and proud of it.