For a long time, being an able-bodied individual was a fact that was taken for granted. From the age of three, I would visit museums, parks, community groups, and playgrounds to run around and explore in. At that age, I was too young to realize that what I was doing, not everyone could do. As I edged into pre-school, elementary school, and then middle school, I had not seen many students or children with physical disabilities. I had not recognized the feeling of staring at someone with a physical or mental disability in an offensive way or spoke down to anyone who identified as “disabled.” I am grateful that my testimonial can be slightly different than the testimonial of the woman writing about Ashley. I would feel ashamed, embarrassed and guilty to admit that I believed someone with a disability could not possibly belong to the same species I belonged to.
However, not coming in contact with diversity wider than race, ethnicity, and religion has hindered my knowledge. It has made me a more ignorant person than I would have been. Miami Senior High School did not have a Best Buddies Program, a program that couples able-bodied students with student who have autism in order to create a friendship, bonding, and mentoring relationship out of the two. I am not sure if I would have joined the program to become a Best Buddy, but without the opportunities being presented to us, there will always be more reactions and ignorance in association to ability and disability issues and people.
I dance for African-Caribbean Day at Mount Holyoke College. This is my second year as a participant. I have just recently joined the Bhangra Dance Team as a Bollywood dancer. I ran track & field for three years, played soccer for two years, and performed in skits and plays for seven years of my life. I was on the Crew team my first semester of my first year. I have been able to swim since the age of six years old and I plan to go out and dance at clubs almost every weekend when I spend my summers back at home in Miami.
I should be exceedingly grateful that I am able to do all of these things. I am completely able-bodied and “normal” in the societal sense of the word. However, I should never believe myself lucky. Luck implies that the opposite is unlucky. That somehow the “condition” I was born in was better than others when compared to ability and disability. I have to learn that that is not the case. I have to realize that who and what this society deems unable, disabled, freaky, wrong, and defective is a socially constructed phenomenon to place a group of individuals in a category much like gender, race and sexuality does.
It took me sixteen years, hundreds of faces, and thousands of people I have come in contact with in my life to realize that now is the time to break out of my comfort zone. I need to branch out and embrace my abilities in order to accept someone who identifies with a disability.
I have joined the 8-week educational, intergroup dialogue program at Mount Holyoke College and have applied to assist and teach four to six year olds with mild to moderate physical disabilities to swim every Sunday with Project SPLASH. This is all that I can do right now, but hopefully my understanding and willingness to the ability/disability community can create a greater impact than I can serve at the moment.
I will never stop being inclusive. And I will never stop learning.