Things We Say About Disability

We are fine. Yes, we have disabilities, but that makes no difference to our capabilities. Just give us a chance, treat us like everyone else, and we will succeed.

We could be fine, if we had a few basic supports in place, but because of bureaucratic stupidity, the persistence of bad, outdated policies, and general public apathy, we are still denied access to proven services we already know would work for us.

We would be fine, but we are battered and bruised every day by the terrible beliefs, insensitivity, and severely misguided practices of the people around us. Even our families and closest friends sometimes don’t really “get” us.

Listen, sometimes we aren’t fine at all. We hurt. We feel sick. We feel worthless. Some days we can barely get out of bed, and we never know ahead of time when those days will be. When we are at our best, we can do a lot, but frankly, we’re very rarely at our best. Not enough people understand that.

The trouble is, they are all true.