Word on the street

YOU SAY POTAH-TO, I SAY POTATOE

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about how disabled people fit into the PC world. I see a lot of anger about how we should be referred to — differently abled vs disabled. Is it really an insult to be called differently abled? Isn’t that what we are? When I start to think about my life and how I deal with so many other things that violate my rights as a disabled person on a daily basis, I feel my anger should really be focused on these issues instead. Parking. Sidewalks. Bathrooms. Just to name a few.

There’s so many different things that happen to me every day that prevent me from living my life to the fullest. I am often barred from the essential ways of getting from one place to another in a city. Not having available parking in places where I want or need to go. Pathways constructed without a thought about how a disabled person could use them. Not to mention that there are more handicap accessible bathrooms that I can’t fit into than ones I can. The list goes on but the lack of recognition of how these things prevent a disabled person from having their independence is truly a insult to injury. So when a person actually tries, perhaps even struggles, to find the words to be respectful to me as a disabled person, I don’t get angry. The potential of my anger would just be misdirected, wasted without actually addressing the issues that matter on a fundamental level to me living and living well.

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