Disability Pride
Disability pride.
A concept that I fully embrace today, and struggled with initially. Because ableism. Because I wanted to stand out for other reasons. Because I felt that I couldn’t have or be both disabled and an exceptional professional, citizen, human in relationship. (Wrong and ableist AF) Because I was grieving and my reason for grief was confirmed by the humans around me.
When I first took my disabled body into the world, with peers, humans who I respected and who respected me back, I experienced invisibility. I used a scooter to navigate a large hotel and conference center. I told people to look for me in a scooter. And many of those humans looked past me.
For the sake of not looking at that which is different. That which is other. And I appreciate that it was coming from a place of being polite, because before I became a disabled person, I did the same thing. I didn’t look, because “I didn’t want to stare.“ But what I did not realize, until experiencing it myself, was that when I chose not to look, I was rendering a human invisible. Not, not staring.
Disability lesson number one:
Not looking at a person with a disability is not the polite thing. You are not being kind by rendering a human invisible. That is a YOU thing, not a disabled person thing.
I offer this lesson because it was never taught to me.
Thank you for reading.
More to follow.
