The worlds of the disabled and the "normal" often cross paths—and not always pleasantly. But just think how much better we’d get along if we ALL thought of ourselves as disabled . . .
Like the rest of the world, I have to deal with my strengths and weaknesses in my own unique manner. Many people look at the amount of accomplishments I have managed to achieve in my short life and are amazed that someone who is disabled could have done so much.
Yet I am constantly thinking of how much more there is to do! And if I sat around and spent all of my precious time labeling myself with words like "disabled" and "handicapped," I’d be too busy to ever do anything productive. That is why I say that, in a way, we are ALL disabled. But how?
Don’t we all have some area in which we need help?
What about the computer illiterate who panics every time his computer makes a noise, opens an extra window, sends him an "error" message, crashes, or freezes up? In today’s technological age, this is definitely a disability that is likely to affect his job performance, his level of proficiency, and perhaps even the security of his very career.
What about the person with extremely poor vision who years to be a fighter pilot, or fly domestic flights for United or Delta? Without corrective surgery, and perhaps even with it, their hopes of achieving their dreams are less than zero.
And what about the would-be athlete who wants nothing less in life than to be an Olympic athlete, a star quarterback, or a diva figure skater—but who just doesn’t have the physical skills needed to achieve his or her dreams? After all, professional sports requires more than just heart, drive, and desire. It requires coordination, hand-to-eye skills, visual acuity, and in many cases, very specific physical requirements. After all, it would be difficult for a 6’4", 220-pound woman to be a petite figure skater, while it would be almost impossible for a 5’2", 12-pound man to be a defensive lineman for the New York Jets—or the next Michael Jordan!
Vision, hearing, and coordination problems. Weight, height, physical fitness. Intelligence, IQ, the money to go to a good college. Nationality, race, religion. Fear, weakness, depression. All of these, and the list goes on and on, are disabilities of some sort. Hidden though they may be, and not labeled a specific name or definition such as cerebral palsy, they are nonetheless real and legitimate disabilities that people face on a day-to-day basis.
My best friend in college once compared me to someone that was too short to reach the top shelf in the kitchen. She said that my shakes and the help I needed was no different than the short person who needed help reaching the top shelf. And she was right.
All of us have weakness that must be dealt with, just like my shakes and someone else’s shortness. When this happens, a disability occurs. Plain and simple. We all have them, we all deal with them, it’s a part of life. It’s how we react to those disabilities, it’s how we break down the barriers they present, or work our way around them, over them, or through them, that determines how big or little those disabilities are.
