Demystifying Disability: What to Know, What to Say, and How to Be an Ally

by Emily Ladau

If the disability community wants a world that’s accessible to us, then we must make ideas and experiences of disability accessible to the world.

There is no singular disability experience,

So it’s important to remember that if you’ve met one disabled person, you’ve met one disabled person. And if you have a disability, then the only disability experience you’re an expert on is your own.

Disability: a state of being; a natural part of the human experience.

No two people are able to do exactly the same things in exactly the same ways. Some people can sing. Some people can solve a Rubik’s cube in sixty seconds. Some people can cook. Some people can contort like a pretzel. Technically, disabled people aren’t the only ones who are differently abled. We all are.

“being part of one marginalized community doesn’t absolve you from understanding discrimination toward marginalized people whose experiences are different than your own.”

no disability makes anyone more or less of a whole person.

“The tragedy is not that we’re here, but that your world has no place for us to be.”