According to the Center for Disability Rights, ableism is “a set of beliefs or practices that devalue and discriminate against people with physical, intellectual, or psychiatric disabilities, and often rests on the assumption that disabled people need to be ‘fixed’ in one form or the other”. So, basically able-bodied people often feel pity for disabled people because they automatically believe that having a disability makes life hard and unenjoyable. This perception is strengthened by myths about disability that are incorrect but still often enforced in popular media. One example of these myths would be the idea that people who use wheelchairs are “wheelchair-bound”, though wheelchairs are only a device that enables someone to move around. Due to these misconceptions, able-bodied people sometimes think that disabled people aren’t capable of doing things that they, in reality, are able to do. This has led to e.g. a high rate of unemployment among disabled people.
In addition to this, the rights of disabled people are often forgotten in mainstream discussion. For example, intersectional feminism that aims to understand how a unique combination of someone’s social identities creates a particular mode of discrimination hardly ever focuses on disability. It usually circulates around race, ethnicity, sexuality and gender, whereas disability might sometimes be mentioned, but it’s rarely talked about more deeply like the other identities.
It’s been estimated that up to 15% of the world’s population have some kind of disability. That’s a really big percentage. That’s why it is very important to educate yourself about different disabilities and how to make the world as accommodating as possible for people with those disabilities. Having a disability in itself is not a bad thing, but a non-accommodating world is. If you have never really talked to people with disabilities, it can also be easy to accidentally be rude to them or not really know how to act around them. It’s good to remember, though, that they are normal people just like everyone else.
I am able-bodied myself and can’t tell you what it’s like to live with a disability, or what kinds of things people with disabilities would like you to take into consideration to make the world a more accommodating place for them to live in. Luckily, there are tons of amazing disabled YouTubers whose videos you can watch to hear from them directly! Here are some of my personal favourites:
- The absolutely beautiful Jessica Kellgren-Fozard has different disabilities and chronic illnesses that she makes videos of, as well as her gorgeous vintage style among other things.
- Molly Burke is a blind YouTuber who also has some amazing videos on fashion, as well as blindness and just her life in general. She’s done some super exciting things, such as skydiving, which I’m really jealous of!
- Sign Duo is this really cute couple where one is deaf and one hearing. They make videos on their relationship, for example. Their channel is worth checking out just because they have an adorable deaf dog!
- If I ever feel down, Special Books by Special Kids is a channel whose videos I watch. The owner of the channel is not disabled himself, but he travels around the world interviewing people with different kinds of disabilities and conditions. Most of the videos on his channel are overwhelmingly wholesome and honestly just make me really happy.
- Shane and Hannah, whose channel is called Squirmy and Grubs are another interabled couple. Shane is diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy and mostly the couple just makes videos on their everyday life and their relationship. They are super cute together and they just recently got married!
- Jonny Benjamin is a mental health advocate who is diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder and makes videos on that, as well as politics and his personal life. He’s also done some really cool stuff like ran a marathon, which I hope I’ll be able to do one day.
- The beautiful Isabelle Weall is a quadruple amputee who runs a successful YouTube channel only at the age of 16. She makes videos about all kinds of things in addition to her disability: beauty, sports and travelling, to mention a few.
- And last but not least, Annie Elainey is a YouTuber who has Ehlers-Danlos syndrome among other disabilities. She is not only a disability activist, but also talks about for example gender presentation, sexuality and ethnicity in her videos.
These were only a few of my favourite channels by disabled YouTubers. In reality there are so many more and they are all just waiting for you to check them out!