Some days I have a real struggle with the word “different”. To me everyone is different, everyone is unique. These are not good or bad definers they are just a description or comparison and I really dislike when people use a difference they have to some how impose on someone else.
I was brought up to believe that even though I walk a bit differently it doesn’t define me so I adapt. The same way a short person might ask a taller person to reach something on a high shelf in a supermarket, I find ways around things. For example making sure there is not a huge amount of steps wherever I’m going or if there is, what alternatives are there. However someone I know disagrees with this idea and it baffles me. She believes she has a right to do anything, anywhere are anytime, which as someone who is reliant sometimes on a wheelchair is just not possible. For example being given priority without there being a specific need for it like on a plane, or expecting companies by default to provide disabled access to an old building where it’s just not possible.
To me having a specific difference doesn’t give you the right to expect others to adapt to you, whether that be your height, hair colour, physical attribute, accent or anything else that makes you unique. If people choose to accommodate you (a good chunk of people and places try their hardest too) that’s amazing but inclusivity shouldn’t be a right. I choose to earn my place in the world and if somewhere or someone is inaccessible to me because of my difference then that’s their loss not mine. Just because you have a disability that makes you different doesn’t earn your freedom to demand things. Many able bodied people are just as excluded from things because of a difference they have, and this new form form of disabled entitlement is driving me crazy! #CP #CerebralPalsy #disabledentitlement #entitlement #entitled