When the third year medical students in a Temple University physical diagnosis class were presented with patient Thomas Strax, they were pretty sure he might have some rehabilitative potential.� As they looked at the thin man sitting in a wheelchair in a white hospital gown, they saw that he obviously had cerebral palsy. �Students decided that the patient may be able to "sell pencils on Broad Street," and the patient was wheeled out.

A few minutes later, the guest lecturer arrived.� Dressed in a dress shirt and tie and doctor's lab coat, the guest professor introduced himself as Thomas Strax, M.D.�To the students' surprise, this guest lecturer was none other than the patient they just dismissed minutes earlier as only having a future in a sheltered workshop.� Dr. Strax, a physician who specialized in physical medicine rehabilitation, had a message for these beginning doctors and for others. "We see what we are looking for.� We look for what we know.� What we don't know, we never see."

Strax, who experiences Cerebral Palsy, has spent a lifetime challenging what people see in him.� He was the first student with a developmental disability to go through the New York City School System.

Strax knew early on that he wanted to be a physician.� Others, however, were not so sure that this was a good choice. �On the first day of his first chemistry lab in college, he knocked over a 3 gallon bottle of sulfuric acid.� Although the chair of the department decided that chemistry could be waived, Strax insisted that he needed chemistry to get into medical school.� The chair agreed to give him a 2 week trial period. Strax was able to come up with a solution with the help of a family friend in the medical supply business, who built a lab-set out of wood encasements where the test tubes and vials could sit without moving.� Strax was then able to use both hands to pour from a dropper or test tube without disturbing the chemistry set.� He was also able to do some experiments at home and went on to do fine in chemistry.