For lots of us, disabled people are not our teachers or our doctors or our manicurists. We're not real people. We are there to inspire.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
You know that the world is a better place when people can come up to a severely disabled person and say: 'Well done. You are an inspiration.'
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.
I use the term 'disabled people' quite deliberately, because I subscribe to what's called the social model of disability, which tells us that we are more disabled by the society that we live in than by our bodies and our diagnoses.
My message is not just to disabled people, but to everyone: You have to work hard.
It feels amazing to be a role model for people with and without disabilities.
Disability is a matter of perception. If you can do just one thing well, you're needed by someone.
I don't see myself as disabled. There's nothing I can't do that able-bodied athletes can do.
For me, and for many other people with disabilities, our status as disabled people is one of which we are fiercely proud.
I'm definitely more understanding of people who have disabilities and who are suffering.
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.