This is an unfiltered version where I can express more of my thoughts from my previous post on this topic (if you would like to read it, you can here: https://elliotshares.com/blog/my-thoughts-regarding-disabilities/). I understand people might disagree with what I say, and that’s okay. This post isn’t meant to attack or put people down. This post might surprise some people. All I ask is that you please be respectful of other people’s thoughts and opinions.
I get some questions about what it’s like living with a disability, and I plan to address those as well as share my thoughts on the disability community.
A question/comment I might get is Why are you in a wheelchair. I was born with a disability called Cerebral Palsy, which is caused by damage to the brain and made it hard for me to get oxygen at birth. There are multiple types of Cerebral Palsy, and they affect people in different ways. Cerebral Palsy caused my muscles to stiffen and my leg muscles to not work properly.
Another question people might ask is, can you catch Cerebral Palsy? Cerebral Palsy isn’t a sickness that you can catch. Cerebral Palsy is a disability that I’ve had since birth.
A common thing that I’ve seen people do is that some people tend to treat people with disabilities like we are younger than we are. This happened to me in school, and a school aide always talked down to me. Before I decided to approach her and explain not to treat me that way, she had already quit. Please treat people with disabilities like how you’d like to be treated.
I don’t understand why people tend to group people with disabilities together. For example, in high school, I took a life skills class, which was fine. I enjoy learning life skills. The issue was that I had to leave 10 to 20 minutes early to catch the bus before the last bell rang at 3:25. People might respond Couldn’t your teacher explain what was coming up ahead of time? My question would be: Why was I being treated for something I can’t control? I would have liked to have stayed the extra ten minutes of school like everyone else. This happened throughout high school. I would have liked to be asked, “Would you like to go home a little early or stay until the last bell?”
Something I don’t understand is why it is so hard for people with disabilities to express themselves, or it could just be me. Sometimes I fear that if and when I express myself, I get a negative reaction. It could be because of my past issues from childhood. The reason why I bring this up here is that, as part of having a disability, I am reliant on other people to help me. I need assistance with personal care and getting up and dressed in the morning. If someone didn’t get me up in the morning, I’d be in bed all day. I also understand certain staff might not work well with people with disabilities. If someone with a disability chooses to go to bed at a certain time one night and then chooses to go to bed at a different time another night. What if we are doing something or something happens at a certain time one night? I don’t think that it should be the staff’s decision on when their client goes to bed. I think that should be allowed. My advice would be: if you are taking care of someone, please understand that we have the right to express ourselves at any time. I think just because we are disabled doesn’t give other people a right to make decisions for us. Would you like to be told when you go to bed each night?
I think people with disabilities should be given the same opportunities that everyone has. Having a disability shouldn’t put a limit on what we can do. It might require people to give us more time to do things, and that’s okay. As a person with a disability, it takes more time for me to do things. It just requires people to slow down and allow us to do what we need to do.
I don’t know if this has happened to you. I think people with disabilities should have more of a say in when things happen. I don’t think it’s right for people to decide things for other people. It’s like when someone walks up to you and randomly starts messing with you without your permission. Would you like that, or would you rather people ask before they do things?
People with disabilities can teach a lot; they just need the opportunity. My advice: please take time to really listen to what people with disabilities have to say. We might surprise you.
Does anyone relate to this? What are your thoughts regarding people with disabilities? Please feel free to comment below. If you want to reach out to me privately, please visit the contact me page on the homepage.
