For me, disability is a way of getting some extremity, some kind of very difficult situation, that throws an interesting light on people.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
When you hear the word 'disabled,' people immediately think about people who can't walk or talk or do everything that people take for granted. Now, I take nothing for granted. But I find the real disability is people who can't find joy in life and are bitter.
For me, disability is a physical experience, but it's also a cultural experience and a social experience, and for me, the word 'crip' is the one that best encapsulated all of that.
I'm definitely more understanding of people who have disabilities and who are suffering.
Disability is often framed, in medical terms, as the ultimate disaster and certainly as a deficit.
I'm not an advocate for disability issues. Human issues are what interest me. You can't possibly speak for a diverse group of people. I don't know what it's like to be an arm amputee, or have even one flesh-and-bone leg, or to have cerebral palsy.
Disability doesn't make you exceptional, but questioning what you think you know about it does.
I think that everyone has something about themselves that they feel is their weakness... their 'disability.' And I'm certain we all have one, because I think of a disability as being anything which undermines our belief and confidence in our own abilities.
Disability is a matter of perception. If you can do just one thing well, you're needed by someone.
The disabled people that do sport, they don't think about what they don't have but try to get better with what they do have. That is the same for me.
We think we know what it's all about; we think that disability is a really simple thing, and we don't expect to see disabled people in our daily lives.