July is Disability Pride Month, a month dedicated to promoting awareness, acceptance, and empowerment of people with disabilities. We also take this opportunity to recognize the attitudes and barriers that continue to limit our full participation in society.
This month, the Minnesota Council on Disability highlights the unique experiences and perspectives of people within our community.
A guest blog post by Lance Hegland, citizen advocate:
It’s amazing that human history goes back over 2 million years and has seen more than 100 billion people. That’s a lot of accumulated knowledge and wisdom! It’s mind-blowing!
Throughout history, we’ve learned that disability can happen for different reasons, like genetics, accidents, illnesses, or simply getting older. Disability is just a part of being human. When I say “disability,” I’m talking about unique circumstances, not something that’s good or bad. It’s like different shades of blue, such as turquoise, teal, and indigo. Each shade has its own strengths and weaknesses, benefits and drawbacks. Disability is the same way. It has its unique qualities.
Sadly, some people only see disability as bad or undesirable. They might think people with disabilities are weak, helpless, or dependent on others. That’s not true. And it’s hurtful.
Such prejudice about disability can cause people to overlook the advantages, strengths, and benefits of disability. They likely don’t know about all the valuable things that we offer our families, friends, and communities. This lack of understanding often leads to discrimination: treating us differently than those who don’t seem to have a disability.
When we face discrimination and exclusion, we have fewer opportunities to contribute to and benefit from humanity and society. This makes our lives even more challenging. Society might mistakenly think that we are becoming “more disabled,” when it’s actually society’s prejudice, discrimination, and exclusion that have made things worse.
But here’s the truth: everyone and everything has challenges, weaknesses, and drawbacks. However, the advantages, strengths, and benefits can outweigh these challenges if we practice compassion, wisdom, and persistence.
We are just as human as anyone else. Because of our unique challenges, we often need to find creative solutions. So we are often inventive. We help remind society about how adaptable and determined human beings are, even when facing big hurdles. Many of the technologies people use every day were created by people with disabilities to address their own challenges, such as automatic doors and voice dictation. Plus, our diversity gives us all opportunities to practice empathy, understanding, and creativity for each other while recognizing our interdependence. That’s definitely something to be proud of!
To experience the goodness and benefit of disability, we all need to work on consciously overcoming our natural tendency to focus on negatives. We must intentionally look for advantages, strengths, and benefits. We must practice compassion, wisdom, and persistence for ourselves and others. By identifying the gifts that we offer, we can build and celebrate the pride that we have for ourselves. By getting to know the gifts of others throughout our community, we can celebrate our individual and community pride together; all for one, one for all; diversified unity, unified diversity. Then, we can better support each other in staying healthy, safe, respected, and included. We can experience the incredible strength and beauty of humanity working together.