A call to fellow little people - please stop saying you aren't disabled
Growing up as a little person, I didn't think I had a disability. I went to school, hung out with my friends, participated in music and sports. I was involved with Little People of America (LPA), where I was told that I wasn't disabled, just different (specifically: short). When I began competing in swimming at the national and international level, I shed many tears over the labels of "disabled" and "handicapped" surrounding the events I competed at. I preferred "challenged", or "physically different." I understood the concept of "disabled" as something bad, something I didn't want to be, a small, limiting box of an identity that my life just didn't fit into.
As I started using a scooter more, it began considerably more difficult to deny that I was disabled. As I met more people with disabilities and started reading online about disability advocacy, my idea of what it meant to have a disability expanded, and I realized that instead of shunning this identity, I needed to embrace it.
The dwarfism community is diverse. There are over 300 forms of dwarfism, each of which is a unique medical condition. Many little people, myself included, use mobility aids such as wheelchairs and scooters. However, many people with dwarfism walk unassisted. I understand that these people may not "feel" disabled. However, even the people who claim to not be disabled use accommodations around the home and in the car. They face discrimination in society and the workplace and encounter inaccessibility in grocery stores, public bathrooms, clothing stores, ATM's, public counters. Their bodies are clearly different than average, yet they continue to distance themselves from the label "disabled", reiterating that they can do everything average-height people can, just in a different way.
But last time I checked, this is what disability is - living life with a different body, using different devices, than what is average and typical. In the words of Neil Marcus, "disability is not a brave struggle or 'courage in the face of adversity.' Disability is an art. It's an ingenious way to live." People with disabilities, including dwarfism, live fulfilling, productive lives.
I believe that the reason so many people in the dwarfism community continue to say that they are not disabled is because society's view of disability is so incredibly negative. As Stella Young so beautifully said in her TED talk (which, if you haven't watched yet, you seriously should: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxrS7-I_sMQ), society has been fed the lie that living with a disability is a Bad Thing. Disability is equated with incompetence, hopelessness, a life not fully lived or enjoyed.
I understand why people want to distance themselves from this negative view of disability. However, by insisting we're not disabled, we are only hurting ourselves. Within the LPA community, there is often a divide at conferences between people who use assistive mobility devices and people who don't. It's possible that this divide is simply a natural phenomenon wherein the people who have the most in common hang out with each other. But I believe this is only part of the story - I believe that many of the non-assistive-device-ambulating-little-people want to distance themselves from the "other", the "disabled" in the community. And I believe that it is time for this to end.
Accessibility and acceptance are problems for all of us, whether we're 3 feet tall or 4 foot 10, whether we walk unassisted, use crutches, use a scooter part-time, or use a wheelchair full-time. And much greater strides will be made if we renew our commitment to embracing diversity instead of distancing ourselves from what we're afraid of. I challenge the LPA community to think critically about what it means to be disabled, and I hope that more people will begin to, instead of buying into society's limited view of disability, work to expand it.
Society has tried to tell us that to be disabled is to be less than human. Many of us are familiar with Billy Barty's quote: "We are parents and sons and daughters. We are doctors and lawyers and realtors and teachers. We dream, cry, laugh, shout, fall in love, and make mistakes. We are no different from you." The same is true of the greater disability community, and I challenge LPA to embrace our place in this community by continuing to show society our humanity, our commitment to diversity, and our ingenious ways of living.
As I started using a scooter more, it began considerably more difficult to deny that I was disabled. As I met more people with disabilities and started reading online about disability advocacy, my idea of what it meant to have a disability expanded, and I realized that instead of shunning this identity, I needed to embrace it.
The dwarfism community is diverse. There are over 300 forms of dwarfism, each of which is a unique medical condition. Many little people, myself included, use mobility aids such as wheelchairs and scooters. However, many people with dwarfism walk unassisted. I understand that these people may not "feel" disabled. However, even the people who claim to not be disabled use accommodations around the home and in the car. They face discrimination in society and the workplace and encounter inaccessibility in grocery stores, public bathrooms, clothing stores, ATM's, public counters. Their bodies are clearly different than average, yet they continue to distance themselves from the label "disabled", reiterating that they can do everything average-height people can, just in a different way.
But last time I checked, this is what disability is - living life with a different body, using different devices, than what is average and typical. In the words of Neil Marcus, "disability is not a brave struggle or 'courage in the face of adversity.' Disability is an art. It's an ingenious way to live." People with disabilities, including dwarfism, live fulfilling, productive lives.
I believe that the reason so many people in the dwarfism community continue to say that they are not disabled is because society's view of disability is so incredibly negative. As Stella Young so beautifully said in her TED talk (which, if you haven't watched yet, you seriously should: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxrS7-I_sMQ), society has been fed the lie that living with a disability is a Bad Thing. Disability is equated with incompetence, hopelessness, a life not fully lived or enjoyed.
I understand why people want to distance themselves from this negative view of disability. However, by insisting we're not disabled, we are only hurting ourselves. Within the LPA community, there is often a divide at conferences between people who use assistive mobility devices and people who don't. It's possible that this divide is simply a natural phenomenon wherein the people who have the most in common hang out with each other. But I believe this is only part of the story - I believe that many of the non-assistive-device-ambulating-little-people want to distance themselves from the "other", the "disabled" in the community. And I believe that it is time for this to end.
Accessibility and acceptance are problems for all of us, whether we're 3 feet tall or 4 foot 10, whether we walk unassisted, use crutches, use a scooter part-time, or use a wheelchair full-time. And much greater strides will be made if we renew our commitment to embracing diversity instead of distancing ourselves from what we're afraid of. I challenge the LPA community to think critically about what it means to be disabled, and I hope that more people will begin to, instead of buying into society's limited view of disability, work to expand it.
Society has tried to tell us that to be disabled is to be less than human. Many of us are familiar with Billy Barty's quote: "We are parents and sons and daughters. We are doctors and lawyers and realtors and teachers. We dream, cry, laugh, shout, fall in love, and make mistakes. We are no different from you." The same is true of the greater disability community, and I challenge LPA to embrace our place in this community by continuing to show society our humanity, our commitment to diversity, and our ingenious ways of living.
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