Using disabled people against each other
Lately I've been seeing the concept of the "gifted, magical, successful disabled person" being held up as a shining example of what all of us poor, lazy, not-trying-hard-enough disabled people could do if only we had a positive attitude and TRIED HARDER.
I keep encountering people who use the example of "This person has a disability and he/she is the CEO of a Fortune 500 company" or "He/she is a famous scientist/inventor" or "He/she has written best-selling books" or whatever other fantabulous thing this disabled person did. I think this is somehow supposed to be "inspirational," but to me it seems like when people tell me, "This disabled person has made this remarkable achievement" the unspoken rest of the sentence is "...so why haven't you?"
I've even seen this picture floating around Facebook of a small child running on prosthetic legs (supposedly; in the picture he appears to actually be standing still) with the caption "YOUR EXCUSE IS INVALID" meaning that whatever it is you say you can't do, it's just an excuse because obviously if this child can run on prosthetic legs then you're not allowed to say that you can't run because it will give you an asthma attack, or you can't "tune out" the blaring music coming from next door because you have an auditory processing disorder, or you can't figure out how to do your tax return because you have a learning disability that involves numbers.
Yes, because what one disabled person does, every disabled person can do. Stephen Hawking has ALS and he's a famous scientist, so therefore every person with ALS or any other disability can become a famous scientist.
I keep encountering people who use the example of "This person has a disability and he/she is the CEO of a Fortune 500 company" or "He/she is a famous scientist/inventor" or "He/she has written best-selling books" or whatever other fantabulous thing this disabled person did. I think this is somehow supposed to be "inspirational," but to me it seems like when people tell me, "This disabled person has made this remarkable achievement" the unspoken rest of the sentence is "...so why haven't you?"
I've even seen this picture floating around Facebook of a small child running on prosthetic legs (supposedly; in the picture he appears to actually be standing still) with the caption "YOUR EXCUSE IS INVALID" meaning that whatever it is you say you can't do, it's just an excuse because obviously if this child can run on prosthetic legs then you're not allowed to say that you can't run because it will give you an asthma attack, or you can't "tune out" the blaring music coming from next door because you have an auditory processing disorder, or you can't figure out how to do your tax return because you have a learning disability that involves numbers.
Yes, because what one disabled person does, every disabled person can do. Stephen Hawking has ALS and he's a famous scientist, so therefore every person with ALS or any other disability can become a famous scientist.