Disability Pride is something I think about frequently. As someone who has attended her fair share of pride parades, the concept of pride in difference is not something that is foreign to me. However, growing up in an ableist world, when I was first introduced to the concept of disability pride it almost seemed absurd. As we tend to view disability as always a negative, it seems like a foreign concept. However, when I read No Pity by Joseph P. Shapiro, my perspective started to change. I began to see disability as part of human diversity, before I even identified myself as disabled.
When I was diagnosed with a learning disability in my mid teens, it was like my life finally made sense. Although I was bullied for it and suffered from a lot of shame because of it, I also had the idea that I was no better or worse than someone else, just different with a brain that works in its own unique way. When I started getting sick soon after, it was harder to reconcile that with being part of human diversity when all I wanted was to be out of pain. When I got one diagnosis (fibromyalgia), and later another (Ehlers-Danlos syndrome), my life made sense yet again. With Ehlers-Danlos being a genetic condition that effects every part of my body, there was this sense that this is who I am. Nothing in the near future is going to change it, I might as well have pride in who I am, the way I was made.
It's important not to confuse pride with a statement that my life is painless, or without hardship. I do suffer from chronic pain, my life has its difficult moments and sometimes those are above and beyond the hardship of living in an ableist world. However, to me, pride means the radical idea that I am okay, just as I am. I don't have to be cured to be a human being worth of dignity and respect. I am part of a diverse society with my own unique differences and challenges, just as everyone else.
As a Unitarian Universalist who also believes in God, my own spiritual beliefs affirm the worth and dignity of every person. That includes people with disabilities. I also believe in a God who created people in God's own image. That includes disability. I don't mean to get preachy but my beliefs not only allow me to have pride; they remind me that I deserve nothing less.
Will there be a cure in my lifetime? I don't know. All I know is that I have the body I have, for better or for worse; I might as well learn to love it.
"You get proud by practicing." - Laura Hershey
Sunday, March 2, 2014
Wednesday, January 1, 2014
In A World...
Last night, a friend of mine with a similar learning disability to me and I started talking about learning disabilities. Although there are parts of my disabilities I really don't like and struggle to accept (like my chronic pain and fatigue), I mentioned that I wouldn't change my learning disability even if I could, because of my strengths (like music and verbal skills) and because, well, different people think differently.
That reminded me of the first thing I learned in disability studies class; the social model (which I don't entirely subscribe to) teaches that while impairment is in the individual, the disability in society. Then it occurred to me, in a more accessible world, learning disabilities wouldn't be considered disabilities at all. If everyone got the amount of time on tests that they needed, the ability to use a computer in place of writing by hand, access to audio information if reading is difficult, just where would the "disability" be? Learning disabilities would be a different way to think, quite simply. And different people will always think differently - how boring would the world be if we all thought and processed the same way?
It's important to note that I don't always subscribe to the social model as I find sometimes, disability can be a really concrete experience, one that you can feel inside your own body and mind. Or, to paraphrase Julia Serano when she talks about gender, instead of always talking about disability as a social construct, let's talk (also) about the times where disability feels all too real. The experience of the pain I feel daily is so personal that I know I would still feel every bit of it even if I never had to climb another flight of stairs again. It's hard to just see disability as a social construct when you struggle to get out of bed. (I will blog about this a lot more in a future post.) But even still, some disabilities would become completely unremarkable in a world if we just thought about disability differently. Diversity doesn't only mean age, race, gender, language, culture, and sexuality; disability is a part of that too, even with all the challenges.
That reminded me of the first thing I learned in disability studies class; the social model (which I don't entirely subscribe to) teaches that while impairment is in the individual, the disability in society. Then it occurred to me, in a more accessible world, learning disabilities wouldn't be considered disabilities at all. If everyone got the amount of time on tests that they needed, the ability to use a computer in place of writing by hand, access to audio information if reading is difficult, just where would the "disability" be? Learning disabilities would be a different way to think, quite simply. And different people will always think differently - how boring would the world be if we all thought and processed the same way?
It's important to note that I don't always subscribe to the social model as I find sometimes, disability can be a really concrete experience, one that you can feel inside your own body and mind. Or, to paraphrase Julia Serano when she talks about gender, instead of always talking about disability as a social construct, let's talk (also) about the times where disability feels all too real. The experience of the pain I feel daily is so personal that I know I would still feel every bit of it even if I never had to climb another flight of stairs again. It's hard to just see disability as a social construct when you struggle to get out of bed. (I will blog about this a lot more in a future post.) But even still, some disabilities would become completely unremarkable in a world if we just thought about disability differently. Diversity doesn't only mean age, race, gender, language, culture, and sexuality; disability is a part of that too, even with all the challenges.
Hello World!
Hello everyone!
My name is Lindsay and I'm a queer femme, feminist, disabled Jewnitarian disabled theology student from Canada.I used to blog a while back and kind of fell of the wagon, but I want to start posting again especially since being diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, since it is so rare and people don't really know what it's like to live with it. Stay tuned for more!
My name is Lindsay and I'm a queer femme, feminist, disabled Jewnitarian disabled theology student from Canada.I used to blog a while back and kind of fell of the wagon, but I want to start posting again especially since being diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, since it is so rare and people don't really know what it's like to live with it. Stay tuned for more!
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