Today I’m going to write about a common theme in the disability community. A theme that I’ve watched videos about, read about and experienced countless times myself. This is of course the issue of able bodied folk calling disabled folk ‘inspirational’.
So, what is it that the unimpaired population find so admirable. Is it the fact that we put up with them stereotyping us so much? Or the fact that they constantly patronise us yet we still associate with them?
I think it’s because they are scared. It might sound silly but I have a theory that they are so afraid of people who aren’t like them that their defence mechanism is to tell themselves that disabled people are at another level of humanity to them and that our lives are so different that they couldn’t possibly understand our experiences and therefore they have no business associating with us.
This culture of othering disabled people is toxic, people saying things like ‘I could never do what you do’ is just implying that if they were disabled, they would just lay down and die, which is just not true. Being disabled has its challenges but that doesn’t mean it’s the absolute worst thing to happen to a person. You don’t just give up on life because of your disability, you just adapt to your situation. The truth about being disabled is that we’re not ‘brave’ or ‘inspirational’ for simply existing, we’re just people who happen to face different kinds of challenges and those challenges are sometimes not things that able bodied people face, but that doesn’t mean that we’re some kind of outstanding humans who have minds of steel.
Now, I have to acknowledge that being called ‘inspirational’ isn’t terrible in every situation. For example, being called inspirational for having a good work ethic despite the fact that the work is going to take me longer is valid, because you’re not saying I’m inspirational for simply being. You’re saying I’m inspirational for my mind and my decisions. Sometimes it is nice for people to acknowledge that not everything is as easy for me as it is for them but that doesn’t mean that able bodied people can go around calling disabled people ‘inspirational’ rather than treating them and respecting them like normal people.
I didn’t choose have a disabled body, therefore I’m not brave for being in it.