For the last several years now, every spring, I’ve been asked to present to a special education class at a local high school.  My mom is an administrator in the school district and she likes to have me speak to students as motivation. I talk about my life living with a severe physical disability and how I overcame and continue to overcome the many challenges I face.  I tell them about growing up and going away to college. I share some of the funny experiences I had and how I persevered through tough times. My message to them is to never ever give up no matter what life throws at you.  Oftentimes, I also talk to Kindergarten classes.  At that age, it’s about exposing them to someone with a severe physical disability and having them not be afraid. I get some pretty funny questions from those kids!  In the past, I’ve also presented to college classes.  Education majors usually have to take an intro to special education course, and, since I wasn’t the “typical” student, my story is from a different perspective. 

Maybe it’s because teaching is in my heart and soul, but I admit that I absolutely love presenting to others.  While, personally, I don’t take offense to being called or seen as an inspiration, many people with disabilities do.  To me, I feel like it’s my underlying duty to inspire people. If people are inspired and encouraged by seeing me lead a successful life despite all of my circumstances, I’m all for it.  They may not like it, but I’m inspired by my friends who have different abilities.  I guess, personally, I just don’t see the issue with being seen as an inspiration.   

That said, most of time, I don’t want to standout just because I have a disability.  I know that sounds contradictory.  Let me try to explain.  Nobody likes to have attention drawn to their flaws.  While I like to present about living with a disability, on an average day, I don’t think about my disability. I don’t want to be seen as an inspiration just because of my disability.  I want people to be encouraged by how I deal with my limitations.

Sometimes, I think disability awareness and advocacy is taken too far.  For example, I have mixed feelings about disability awareness days.  Days such as “World Down Syndrome Day,” “World Cerebral Palsy Day,” “Epilepsy Awareness Day,” and “Autism Awareness Day” are at the end of March and the beginning of April.  On one hand, bringing awareness to disabilities is a great thing. The more ways we can get society as a whole to accept and include people with disabilities the better. On the other hand, though, wearing a certain color and/or a pin (which is often suggested on these days) isn't going to cure these disabilities. In fact, as I said, drawing attention to a person's disability is--in most cases--the last thing the person wants.

The notion of “inspirational porn” has been a controversial topic on the internet for awhile now.  It’s when media outlets commend and do stories about people with disabilities doing “normal” things. Again, I have mixed feelings about this too.  While I agree that some stories seem excessive, I think it’s important to share success stories about people who have disabilities with the general population. It promotes acceptance and inclusion.

I think it’s a very fine line between educating about disabilities and exploiting disabilities.  There’s no rule book for this, so we are left to figure it out as we go.  Many people disagree with me on this, and that’s ok.  We are each entitled to an opinion!

***The views expressed here are strictly those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of InControl Wisconsin, the Network or any of our sponsors.