Mac Gray

Mac Gray lived a very full and active life as an able bodied person for the first twenty-five years of his life. He has lived the last twenty-three years with a disability after a motorcycle accident left him a quadriplegic on September 7, 1984.

Mac has over twenty years of motivational speaking experience. He is a member of Toast Masters International and was a guest presenter at the 2007 Spring Conference. Mac was also a guest presenter at the Ohio Health Plans all staff retreat in December of 2006. He spoke on behalf of Muskingum County 4 - H Program, "Carteens" for seven years and the Coshocton County Juvenile Courts presenting traffic safety seminars for first time juvenile traffic offenders for ten years before that.

In May 2007 Mac was the recipient of the Hamilton Hill award for “Being an inspiration to the disabled community in lighting the way for others to lead full and rewarding lives” from the Fairfield Center for Disabilities and Cerebral Palsy. Mac served on the Board of Trustees for Fairfield Industries, an adult sheltered workshop, the Southeastern Center for Independent Living, and most recently the Fairfield Center for Disabilities and Cerebral Palsy as President from 2005 to present.

With his Decisions and Consequences program he has spoken to thousands of teens and young adults of the dangers of alcohol, drugs and driving. Mac was a guest speaker at the Ohio Lifesavers Conference - recipient of The Governor's Traffic Safety Award, from The Ohio Department of Public Safety and The Governor’s Traffic Safety Committee in 1994. He has been in two international training videos advocating for people with disabilities and interviewed on the international internet radio program “Disability Matters” with Joyce Bender. Most recently Mac was the kick off speaker at the Youth Leadership Forum for teens with disabilities sponsored by the Governors Council on People with Disabilities.

Mac knows first hand just how important it is for people with disabilities to be treated as equally as able boded people, that is why he not only advocates for people with disabilities he also tries to educate people on what it is like to live with a disability as well as how to prevent from incurring one.

In addition to addressing his personal experience with “Decisions and Consequences,” he also speaks to audiences on behalf of disability education by showing a twenty-six minute international training video titled “The Ten Commandments of Communicating with People with Disabilities”. This is a four star, three time award winning video that uses humorous vignettes to deliver its disability awareness message.