Transcript for: Understanding Disability: Perception and Inclusion
I so often hear people send the message like thank God that's not me when they see someone with a disability or like thank God that's not me or my kid. And that's sending the message that disability is equal to
someone who is less than or broken or incomplete
and that's not the case. (upbeat music) - I have Cerebral Palsy. It affects me pretty
much from the hips down and also just like fine motor
control and things like that. - So I have Tourette Syndrome which is a neurological disorder which means I do movements and noises that I can't control. - I have Cerebral Palsy
as well left Hemiparesis and Nystagmus which means that my whole left side is weaker than my rights. - I have a very aggressive form for Lupus. And I have a blood clotting
disorder associated with my Lupus and four years
ago I had a clot in my foot. And then this happened
and over eight months and 11 surgeries, this was the end. (upbeat music) - I... love having Tourette's. I love that I'm four foot, seven. I love my obsessive compulsive disorder. And I think that's the
case that many of us have embraced our disabilities. - I've had my disabilities
since I was born and it's a part me. - My brain is quick and witty
and wildly inappropriate. And it also has Tourette's
and at some point I decided not to just
love parts of my brain. (upbeat music) A lot of times I see kids staring at me. That's OK with me. - I welcome it, kids are curious. - But what I struggle
with is when a parent shushes them or quickly pulls
them in the other direction. - When a child is hustled
away from a person or hushed, it stigmatizes
even just asking the question. - Because kids then associate disability with feeling ashamed. - If they've never seen
anything like this before they're gonna look and if
they questions let them ask. There's nothing wrong with that. - So instead I hope that
parents say things like: How cool that we all move differently and walk differently and talk differently. More than just like normalizing disability but celebrating it. We date, people with disabilities date! And not always other
people with disabilities. - Just because I have I disability doesn't mean I have to be paired with
somebody with a disability. - Direct message to everyone in my life but if you're gonna set
me up on a blind date please have more criteria than this guy also has a disability. (upbeat music) - Not every single
person with a disability is in a wheelchair. I am not in a wheelchair. I've never been in a wheelchair. (upbeat music) - If one more person
calls me an inspiration after just meeting me, I'm
gonna burn your house down. - We aren't inherently
inspirational or brave because we are disabled. We're just kind of the idea that people think about what when they say that. - It's OK to call me an
inspiration once you know me. Or know something about me. But genetics does not
make me an inspiration. Let me earn that word. - There are people who are actually doing amazing, brave things out there. Whether they have a disability or not. - But it comes across
to a disabled person as: wow I'm so happy that
I'm not in your shoes. (upbeat music) - I get a lot of strangers
trying to help me. Up the steps by grabbing my
arm or my waste or something. And that's extremely inappropriate. - You can say hey do you need some help? Rather than just either forcing
my chair or ignoring me. (upbeat music) It took me awhile to actually call myself a person with a disability. But I'm a person first. Being an amputee is secondary. - I rather have somebody say
I'm a person with a disability rather than being disabled because of the whole control and ownership issue. - I hear differently abled. The word is disability. - They used to call myself
like differently abled and some people didn't like that. And I'm just like, but I am different and their like no you're not and it took me awhile to actually see that I was using very able-bodied terms. - It should be a descriptor. Just like I'm right-handed,
I have a disability. (upbeat music) When we're talking about
disabilities I hear the word that we wanna be
accommodating, which is great. Or we're working on tolerance. Nobody wants to just be tolerated. Like I tolerated those
three years my sister was learning to play the trombone. I tolerate going to the dentist. None of these things are things I like, they're things I tolerate because I know that I have to deal with. So there's such an important
step in communities between opening the door to
somebody with a disability and like embracing them and building a community
with them in mind. (upbeat music)