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If you don’t already know, July is Disability Pride Month and during the whole month of July, we get to honor the challenges and accomplishments of disabled people which is important to talk about because society teaches us that all being disabled is bad and that all disabilities need cures. Disability pride is important for disabled and able-bodied people because disabled people need to learn to embrace a disability they cannot change, while able-bodied people need to learn to be accepting of our disabilities. Disability pride is something that we need to teach society as disabled people because if we relied on the media to educate us about disability, we would believe so many things that are not true and can be harmful towards disabled people. In this post, I am going to talk about nine things that everyone should remember during Disability Pride Month and any other time of the year.
A vast majority of disabilities are invisible– When people see me, it is very obvious that I have a disability because I can’t walk and need crutches and a wheelchair to get around but even though my disability is visible, I still have a lot of challenges that are not easy to see. I live with Hydrocephalus, migraines, bladder, and bowel problems that you wouldn’t know I had unless you knew me and so many other challenges that are invisible. People are so quick to yell “faker” when they see someone use a wheelchair that appears normal, but I want to remind you that ambulatory wheelchair users exist and a vast majority of disabilities are invisible. There will always be those people who are lazy and fake a disability, who try to get free services, but a vast majority of people are not faking and have a disability that you cannot see. It can be so harmful to disabled people when you assume that everyone who uses a wheelchair and can walk is faking because sometimes you don’t need a wheelchair 24/7 and it impossible to know who has a disability and who doesn’t just by looking at someone because there are more invisible disabilities than visible ones.
It is okay to be disabled– Society has taught us to believe that being disabled is bad and that being abled is good. Disabled people have more physical challenges than able-bodied, and I do not wish my challenges on anyone, but even though I struggle more, that doesn’t make my disability as a whole a big negative and I have had a lot of positive experiences because of my disability. My disability is what makes me different, but it’s okay to be disabled because disabled people can provide different perspectives on life that abled people fail to understand. Disabled people have moments where we wish our challenges would go away, but I am not ashamed of my disability, and the only time I truly have negative thoughts about my disability is when I am struggling and keep hearing from able-bodied people how much better life would be without my disability.
Not all disabled people want cures– If you are disabled, you have probably have had a couple of experiences where people have forced cures on you. Have you tried yoga or maybe you need more spinach in your diet? Society teaches us that the only way to be happy when you have a disability is with a cure but does anyone ever ask disabled people if they’d even want one? People assume that all disabled people want cure but that is not true and some disabled people would immediately jump on a cure if it was offered to them while others would pass on it because believe it or not you can be happy with a disability. Some people want cures, others don’t and not having access to a cure is not the problem and what disabled people really need is acceptance from able-bodied people .As a society, we need to stop forcing cures on disabled people because it’s not a reality for the vast majority of people and instead of giving disabled people false hope by telling them how to cure themselves, we need to be accepting of someone’s disability instead of telling them that there is something wrong with them that needs to be fixed. The issue isn’t that a vast majority of disabilities can’t be cured but it’s that disabled people are told that we need cures to be acceptable to society which makes disabled people feel isolated.
My disability is not the problem – When you are disabled, you come across a lot of ableist able-bodied people who try to tell you that your disability is the problem and that life would be so much easier if you could walk a little bit better. My disability is not the problem because I can’t change my disability, and the real problem is lack of accessibility and ableism. My disability is not the problem, and if you are going to blame every barrier on my disability, you are the problem because I am can’t change my disability but we can make things more accessible for disabled people to make it easier.
Wheelchairs are freedom– When people see my wheelchair, a lot of the time, people will start apologizing because wheelchairs are often viewed as something bad what a lot of people don’t realize is that my assistive devices are freedom . You shouldn’t feel sorry for my assistive devices because my wheelchair gives me independence, and you should be celebrating my assistive devices instead of telling me to throw them in the trash. Glasses are not questioned by society, so why is it not okay to use a wheelchair? Both glasses and wheelchairs are assistive devices, and the only difference is we use them for different things. Wheelchairs are freedom, and disabled people are not bound to their chair, but we use them! Language matters when talking about disability because when you use the word “wheelchair-bound,” it sounds like you are trapped in your chair when, in reality, it’s freedom!
There is no shame in taking medication. Disabled people sometimes need medication to improve their health, but when taking medication, a lot of the time, you experience some level of shame, even by healthcare providers. Some people will tell us that our medication is making us sick and we need to stop taking our medication to get better, but putting our medication to a halt is not always the solution. If you are not someone’s doctor, it can be so harmful to tell them that their medication is the problem and to stop taking it, because a lot of medications save lives and keep people out of the hospital. There is no shame in taking medication because sometimes you need it to improve your health, and it’s not a sign that you are giving up, but it’s a form of self-care. Stop shaming people for taking medication because sometimes your body needs a little boost to be healthy and there is nothing wrong with that. Medication improve the lives of disabled and not taking your medication is not going to all of a sudden cure your disability but it could make you sicker because doctors prescribe medication for a reason and if it truly was not necessary we wouldn’t take them. Some medical conditions can be treated naturally but not all health conditions can and sometimes medication is your only option.
Anyone can become disabled– A vast majority of disabilities are not birth defects and were acquired through an accident, age, or illness. Most people will never become disabled but I want to remind you that disability can happen to anyone at any moment. I recently came across someone on social media that become fully blind by a freak accident while she was making soap which shows that you can become disabled in a split second. Before you say that you don’t need to listen to the disabled community because you are not disabled I want to remind you that all it takes to join our little community is one horrible accident because no one is immune to disability and if you were to become disabled you’d need disabled people to help you cope.
There are more disabled people than you think– Able-bodied people are always saying that there are not a lot of disabled people in this world because they have no personally come across a lot of people with disabilities. I do agree that there are more able-bodied people than disabled people but a third of the population is disabled and there is probably more disabled people than you think. There are probably more disabled people than you think there are and I want to remind you that even though one doctor doesn’t treat a lot of disabled people, it is not a good way to measure how many disabled people exist because that is only one location. Many disabled people do not leave their homes, and a lot of able-bodied people don’t think about that and assume that because you don’t see a lot of disabilities out in the public, there must not be a lot of us.
Knowing someone who has a disability doesn’t automatically make you an expert– If you are related to me you’d probably have may have a deeper understanding of Spina Bifida than most people would but even though you can give a better science lesson on my disability that doesn’t make you an expert. You may be able to give me a better science lesson my my disability than I can because I don’t care too much about that, but I still will know more about my disability than an abled-bodied person would since I live with it. The only people who can truly call themselves experts on disability are disabled people themselves because there will always be parts of my disability that you may think you understand but unless you have my disability you’ll never truly get it. Able-bodied people should always be learning from disabled people because you may learn something about my disability that doctors won’t tell. Disabled people also need to learn from their peers because even though we have a disability that doesn’t make us an expert on every chronic condition known to humanity.
When you are disabled, sometimes it can feel isolating because society has led us to believe that all disabilities need cures, and it can be so nice to have a whole month to talk about your disability and feel seen. Disabled people need acceptance more than we need cures because the problem isn’t that we move differently, but it’s how people react to our disabilities that makes it difficult to see the good in your disability. This is not a complete list of everything able-bodied people need to remember about disability because I couldn’t possibly put everything in one blog post, and the most important thing to remember is that a disability is what makes someone different, but it’s not necessarily a bad thing. You can’t have disability pride if my disability makes you uncomfortable and you think that the world would be a better place without disabled people, and I strongly believe that my disability forces people to think and understand disability inclusion in a different way because if it wasn’t for my disability people wouldn’t need to learn how to make things accessible. What about disability do you think people should remember during Disability Pride Month?
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