Ever since deleting my Facebook and moving everything to my own website, I wanted to highlight popular posts I had on Facebook. You can read those below.
Inclusion
I’d like to briefly talk about inclusion, so hopefully, my non-disabled friends will have a better understanding of what the world is like for me and why inclusion is so important.
I’d like to frame it around a few examples. I was helping a friend order Pizza one day. The online system was crashing, so I had to call in to place an order.
I called the local Pizza place and tried to place an order. I was hung up on five times because each representative thought I was a prank caller mocking the business and holding up the business just for fun. Even after explaining I had a stutter, they hung up on me because I was too difficult. I was reminded about how phones weren’t designed for stutterers like me.
When I went to see a friend in Chicago, his place didn’t have an elevator. Neither of us had money to go out and I really wanted to visit with my friend, so, I gritted my teeth and climbed the agonizing stairs. Even after my legs stopped throbbing and flaring up with pain I had ringing in my ears, I suddenly realized I’d have to endure pain to travel home. He offered to carry me down the stairs. I was reminded that buildings weren’t designed for physically disabled people like me.
When a friend and I were enjoying a movie together, the particular theater didn’t have audio description. He was laughing at something that was happening on screen with no dialog and lots of music and lots of footsteps. He tried his best to describe what was happening on the screen, but he soon forgot about me, leaving me to struggle to peace together what was happening through context clues. The theater didn’t know, if, and when, they’d get audio description. The manager told me they were thinking about adding audio description, but I can always stay home and read a book instead of watching a movie. I was reminded this movie theater wasn’t designed for visually impaired people like me.
There are tools and technologies to help with these kinds of scenarios. I use these adaptive tools on a daily basis. The adaptive tools also constantly remind me that I’m Disabled and that I’m not like other people.
The adaptive tools I use don’t fix the world for me. They just allow me to get by in an existing world. The adaptive tools allow me to catch up to people, but I’m never standing beside them. I’m always one step behind my friends that I love, very deeply, and who have to wait for me to catch up.
Inclusion allows me to stand beside my friends and we can all enjoy the day without me having to be reminded that I have a Disability. Inclusion is about being okay with disabilities, like it’s okay to wear sandals or sneakers. Inclusion allows me to enjoy life without worrying about my disabilities or what my friends have to do to make sure I can catch up.
Inclusion isn’t about hiding disabilities. It’s about taking the burdens away so we can love our friends and have the strength to love and laugh again tomorrow. We’re still Disabled, but it’s nice to have a day where disabilities don’t matter, where our friendship is the only thing that counts.