How have experiences with the disabled impacted or influenced your life? Tell us at The Good Men Project.
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Growing up as a kid with cerebral palsy, it always seemed as if all eyes were on me for reasons I never wanted to call attention to. I often felt like some small animal or insect being dissected under hot, white light as people shot strange, sometimes unforgiving glances my way. On their lips were questions about why I was different—why I was in a wheelchair—that never made it out of their mouths.
Most of those questions never needed to be asked verbally, because the quick glances and long stares told the story. It admittedly made my blood boil. The way people were treating me didn’t match how I really was as a person, which made it awkward to interact with anyone because they held so tightly to their assumptions about what I was or wasn’t—or what I could or couldn’t do.
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That has made an undeniable impression on me now as an adult. I still get strange looks, but not as frequently as I used to. It drives me to rise above any and all assumptions about me or my disability. In turn, having that kind of control makes interacting with people a much more lively and engaging experience, while letting them know they don’t have to judge a book its cover. Not only that, but it brings me to a place of comfort—comfortable enough to be curious about other people’s experiences with disabilities.
That being said, have you ever been around someone with a disability? If so, what were your initial thoughts or impressions—and when and how did they change? How did the experience change you and/or your perspective of the world?
By the same token, what’s your perception of the disabled as someone on the outside looking in, if you’ve never crossed paths with someone with a disability? What kind of things do you notice from afar that either change your assumptions, or at least make you stop and think?
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It’s questions like these that can build the foundation for a better, stronger society. When we open ourselves to what’s different to us, we in turn open the world up for those who create that difference.
The Good Men Project invites you to share your stories and experiences with disability by submitting here. Please provide the necessary information in all required fields.
Thank you for being a part of the conversation no one else is having!
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Photo Credit: K. Kendall/Flickr
I’ll submit articles when you stop saying “the disabled”.
People with disabilities, period ?