Last modified: Friday, April 7, 2006 11:27 PM EDT No ordinary pageant; no ordinary woman By LAUREN CARTER/SUN CHRONICLE STAFF ATTLEBORO -- Attleboro resident Autumn Grant will be competing in a pageant today. But it's not your ordinary pageant. Called the Ms. Wheelchair Massachusetts Pageant, the competition is a new take on an old tradition: Contestants will do personal interviews, platform speech presentations and on-stage interviews in hopes of becoming a state and national spokeswoman for the disabled, with the goal of influencing social change. Based on past accomplishments, Grant's chances of winning look good. Having muscular dystrophy and using a wheelchair may have restrict ed Grant's movement, but it hasn't stopped her from achieving much of anything -- her degrees and awards form an impressive stack. An Attleboro High alum and summa cum laude graduate of Providence Col lege, Grant went on to earn her mas ter's degree from Boston College in Higher Education Administration. Since then she has been advocating for others as director of the Center for Academic Achievement at Stonehill College in Easton. Grant is also an advisor to undecided students, teaches several classes a year and serves on committees relating to disability awareness and intercultural affairs. She has received many awards, among them the Muscular Dystrophy Association State Personal Achievement Award in 2002. And last year she got her driver's license for her adapted minivan. Don't tell Grant something can't be done. After speaking with the 31-year old for little more than five minutes, you realize that breaking down barriers, and becoming an example of what's possible for the disabled community, is simply what she does every day. `` Once I set my mind to something it's just going to happen,'' she said. Grant knows all the relevant statistics by heart -- the ones that indicate that women with disabilities are less likely to earn bachelor's degrees, less likely to be employed-full time, and more likely to live below the poverty line. There are reasons for this, she said -- among them are transportation issues, problems with handicap accessibility, and the difficulty of finding health insurance that covers physical therapy, a wheelchair, and personal care attendants, for example. But, even amidst the challenges, Grant said ultimately it's attitude and motivation that are the deciding factors. `` There are a lot of barriers that society puts up, but you have to have the drive to break them down,'' she said. That's what Grant hopes to get across onstage today, through a platform called `` Independence through Education.'' Grant's goal is to increase the numbers of people with disabilities on college campuses, so that more disabled people can receive a college education. She said she wants to both change the way colleges look at diversity to include the disabled, and also inspire others with disabilities to realize what they can achieve. `` I have a lot of goals, I want to share my own story and hopefully other people can aspire to realize this is what I've done and it's possible,'' she said. Today's competition, the first of its kind that Grant has participated in, takes place in Hyannis starting at 10 a.m. `` I think it's going to be a good experience getting to meet other successful women with disabilities, it's going to be the highlight of it,'' she said. `` And I'd like to win.'' If she wins, she will go on to compete in a national pageant in Little Rock, Ark. If she doesn't, she'll just keep going. She said she plans to pursue her doctorate next fall. As for what drives her, Grant said she can't be sure. `` I don't know. It's just who I am,'' she said. `` I don't know how to give up.''