A Powerful Message on the Positive Way we Discuss Disability

http://themighty.com/2015/11/teen-wants-to-change-the-positive-way-we-talk-about-disability/?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=Mighty_Page&utm_campaign=DISABILITY


This.  This is an article and blog post about the way we talk about disability and I couldn't love it more.  (I don't own the rights to it, get proceeds from it, etc.)  This young woman nails it.  She has a powerful message that makes you rethink the way that you "speak positively" about disability.  She discusses how she we, in essence, belittle disabled persons by calling every little thing they do inspirational.  She discusses how we shouldn't be so focused on applauding every little role on TV or article that a disabled person is in, but instead that we should be focusing on making it so common that it's normal.  She makes a number of amazing points but here is my favorite:

Political correctness is making everyone so afraid of offending people that we're afraid to ask questions and start a conversation (It's not an exact quote but it sums it up pretty well).

I agree.  We should be able to have a discussion and ask questions.  Knowledge is power.  We will never learn about a person's disability if we don't ask.  If we don't learn about it, we have no way of knowing what we could do to ACTUALLY try to help.  We should be asking the questions that really matter.  We should be asking about how the disease (or whatever caused the disability) is diagnosed so we can encourage awareness and early intervention where possible.  We should be asking how the disease (etc) affects them personally so we know where can start in finding ways to assist them in doing things just as able bodied persons do (She uses an example of a make up artist that nails it).  Instead of being afraid to ask, we need to understand that we can't ACTUALLY help the disabled community until we know how we can help.  More importantly, no one can tell us HOW we can help better than the people who live this life on a daily basis.

Disabilities come in all shapes, sizes, forms, and severities.  Let's take this girl's message and run with it.  Let's ask the questions and find ways to truly talk about disability in a positive way.