Conflicted
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What message do we as disabled people want to send about our capabilities and resilience?
We can do anything. Just give us a fair shot. We are happy and independent. We have our acts together. No problem. Nothing to see here!
or
Having a disability is really hard. Disabilities are trying and painful. Social stigma, ableism, and real-life barriers are, if anything, even worse. Many of us have suffered trauma, and that needs to be understood and respected, too.
These things aren't contradictory of course. That's really the key to living well with disabilities. But from the outside ... and sometimes from the inside ... they sometimes seem like contradictions.
I feel like we are at a stage where the disability community spent several decades in which our general PR strategy was "toughing it out." Now, we are sort of redressing that by emphasizing "self care" and reminding the rest of the world that while we are fundamentally okay as people, disability isn't nothing, and we have real barriers to deal with.
This is the first of what will probably be a series of short blog posts on things disabled people don't have completely figured out.
I feel like we are at a stage where the disability community spent several decades in which our general PR strategy was "toughing it out." Now, we are sort of redressing that by emphasizing "self care" and reminding the rest of the world that while we are fundamentally okay as people, disability isn't nothing, and we have real barriers to deal with.
This is the first of what will probably be a series of short blog posts on things disabled people don't have completely figured out.
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