When you become disabled there’s a few things you notice right away:
Ableism is everywhere.
People will abandon you. Even those you were certain would stick by you.
Just because something is illegal or against human rights code doesn’t mean it’s not happening ALL the time
Accessibility is not what it should be.
People will blame you for your disabilities. It won’t matter what you do or how hard you try, you won’t be “good enough”
All the misconceptions you had about disabled people were wrong.
That’s really the crux of it.
Disability is a minority group you can join anytime.
Most people will experience disability in their lifetime
Yet discriminating against us is not only common it’s socially acceptable.
Most people don’t realize how misguided they are until it happens to them
Many of us living with chronic illness had the same preconceived notions about disabled people until we became disabled ourselves
We thought it wasn’t “that bad”.
We believed we would be the exception
Many of us became advocates because the realization that we were so horribly wrong shook us to our core.
If we had that much ableism to work through, then so does everyone else.
That’s why we need strong allies.
We need people who will say disabled lives matter.
We need to shift the public perception away from the idea that disability is a moral failing.
We need to be visible, take up space and help people realize that all health is temporary and disability happens to almost everyone.
Inclusion and accessibility matter!