By Andrew Pulrang — 2021
Disability activism is empowering. Keys to getting started are staying open, sharing the stage, working collaboratively, listening and learning, and being willing to ask for help to make it less scary.
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CLEAR ALL
You not calling, as a friend, can actually compound the grief and loss they are feeling. Just pick up the phone, even if you get it wrong, just have a conversation and do your best. Your friend with cancer is still the same person they were before.
We’ve been taught to refer to people with disabilities using person-first language, but that might be doing more harm than good.
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Individuals with disabilities frequently encounter workplace discrimination, bias, exclusion, and career plateaus—meaning their employers lose out on enormous innovation and talent potential.
Women with disabilities are often doubly penalized—for being women and for being disabled.
There’s something empowering and dignifying about the act of asking for help when it is genuinely needed.
In the beginning, it was difficult to let myself rest, even with the ultimate doctor’s note. I felt like I still had to push past my (extremely limited) capabilities. I had to practice slowing down and allowing my frailties to become visible even when I had the choice to hide them.
I couldn’t keep “proving everyone wrong” and still do all the things I wanted to do with my life.
We should remember that while disabled people can become good at asking for help, few of us are entirely comfortable with it.
The ongoing dialogue I have with my own perspective and emotions is the biggest job I’ve ever undertaken. Exploring this internal give-and-take forces me to grow in surprising ways.
Often, disabled people have their disability treated, but they don’t have their emotional or spiritual needs addressed.
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