Once upon a time, disability meant people could not live the life of their dreams or even pursue certain careers. This could have been the story of Ian Michael Smith when his parents gave birth to him with Morquio syndrome, a rare enzymic condition that affects the circulatory, muscular, and skeletal systems of the body. However, he started an acting career early in life due to this condition and as a little man. Through this, he appeared in the lead role of Simon Birch in the movie of the same name. Since that role, he has not taken more roles as he is now a software engineer. The Illinois-born worked in different organizations including at PlanGrid, Dark, and Honeycomb.io.
Years after he made an appearance as Simon Birch, Smith has made a name for himself in the tech world making his life quite interesting.
His Early Life and Background
Ian Michael Smith was born on May 5, 1987, in Elmhurst, Illinois. He was born with Morquio syndrome and this health challenge will have a great impact on his life as we shall later see. Moreover, the condition that affects the circular, muscular, and skeletal system led to his stature of 3ft 1 in height. As a result, he has undergone several surgeries including a spinal infusion and two bilateral osteotomies.
Away from this, we gathered that his father was a software engineer whose career impacted the young Smith. In fact, from an early age, Smith is said to have played around on a gigantic computer. Throughout middle school, Smith paid attention to Computer Science classes. Apart from this, not much is known about his parents as well as other family members. Thus, it is unclear whether he had siblings or not. Though his parent’s identity is not a well-known detail, Ian must have enjoyed support from them considering his educational journey and other life achievements.
Focusing on said education, Smith completed his High School education in 2005 at York Community High School, Elmhurst. By attending this school, Smith remains one of its notable alums alongside celebrities like Gary Rystrom, the movie maker, and David Cohn, an American-Israeli professional basketball player. Away from his high school diploma, Smith graduated from two higher institutions. He graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2010 with a degree in Computer Science Engineering. Two years later, he graduated with a master’s degree in Linguistics from Gallaudet University.
Ian Michael Smith’s Statue Influenced His Career as an Actor
Aside from the rare condition he suffers from, Smith is also deaf, Considering these challenges, one would think he may not be living out his dreams, yet, this was not the case. Reportedly, he made his movie debut in 1998 when he appeared in Simon Birch, a movie that was adapted from John Irving’s A Prayer for Owen Meany. Apparently, his role as Simon Birch was meant for a small child actor, and this fit in perfectly with Smith.
Over the years, we have seen actors enjoy certain roles due to their physique or other parts of their history, and in his case, it only marked another role that would change his career for a long time. Apparently, that was not the first time that his being a small man made movie makers consider him for roles. It would be recalled that his parents were approached by a hospital worker to allow Ian to audition for the leading role in The Mighty.
Though the part was later given to Kieran Culkin, if Ian had acted the part, it would have been a close depiction of his reality as it was about a character that suffered from Morquio Syndrome.
Notably, since his appearance in Simon Birch, we have not seen him in other works thus giving the impression that he may have delved into other activities.
The 37-year-old is a Software Engineer
According to Ian Williams Smith’s LinkedIn profile, he is currently an engineering manager at Honeycom.io. The Elmhurst native has a rich CV of working in companies within the US state of California. Though he works in a field he has been passionate about since childhood, it was quite challenging for him to get previous potential employers to create a conducive environment for disabled people.
Per his LinkedIn, Smith started investing in his career as an intern at USDA in 2006. Subsequently, he worked at other organizations. Notable among some of these places is PlanGrid, a San Francisco-based architectural construction software platform where he worked as one of two disabled people among 200 workers.
See Also: Who Is Kenny Ridwan, The Actor From The Goldbergs?
Smith is an Advocate for Unrepresented People
Looking at the challenges he has experienced, Smith is a strong supporter of the inclusion of underrepresented people especially in tech fields. Unsurprisingly, he created Project Alloy, a nonprofit that gives assistance to underrepresented people. Also, he speaks at conferences like the Ability and Tech Summit held at the Ed Roberts campus.
Away from this, his fight for inclusiveness has also taken a legal angle. In 2019, he joined a class action lawsuit against the City of Oakland for discriminating against disabled people from the city’s rent control program. Smith’s case was based on the Costa-Hakins Rental Housing Act which provided certain limits on municipal rent control on certain buildings.
Based on the provisions of the act, certain residential buildings were exempted while others that were called rent control limited how owners could increase comment. Despite these provisions in the act, Smith and some disabled people felt that they did not enjoy access to some of these benefits as they the rent control apartments often lacked amenities for disabled people forcing them to move into more expensive apartments.
