When you hear the word “disabled”, you might picture someone using a wheelchair, someone with a service animal or someone with recognizable physical symptoms. You might have certain expectations of how people with disabilities will appear and move throughout the world, and how they should. But that isn’t always what “disabled” looks like.
An article surfaced this summer regarding a young woman named Kristen Waldbieser who used a wheelchair at Walt Disney World. Using the wheelchair allowed her to enjoy the park that day without worsening the symptoms of her condition, Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS). When she stood up for a photo, a random passerby called out, “Oh, the wheelchair is a hoax!”
This statement reflects the extreme ignorance regarding disability and wheelchair use in today’s society. Not only does the statement imply that Waldbieser was faking her disability, it also exemplifies the lack of awareness regarding ambulatory wheelchair use. Ambulatory wheelchair users rely on their chairs or other mobility aids when they need them; sometimes, they don’t need the aids and can stand, walk or run.
By assuming that someone in a wheelchair is unable to leave the chair, we are also assuming that “disabled” is synonymous with an inability to walk. This way of thinking excludes the countless disabilities, illnesses and other conditions that exist in people who can walk, or may require mobility aids occasionally. “Disabled” can even be completely invisible — in the form of epilepsy, pain disorders, heart conditions, arthritis, and more. It is time to expand our definition of the word “disabled”. Millions of people live with both temporary and permanent disabilities, and it is not up to outsiders to decide whether they are disabled or whether they should be using a wheelchair.
Even as someone living with an invisible disability, I have to remind myself daily that anyone I encounter throughout my day could be dealing with symptoms that I cannot see. “Disabled” can look like anything. “Disabled” can look like a person lying in bed all day, a person using a wheelchair or a person limping one day and running the next. “Disabled” looks young, “disabled” looks old, “disabled” looks active and “disabled” looks stationary. It’s time we educate ourselves on the complexities of disabilities and illness, and accept the various ways it can appear. By doing this, we can be inclusive and accommodating to everyone around us.
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