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

by Emily Ladau

Here’s how I explain it. Imagine your friends are talking nonstop about a trendy new place in the neighborhood that they want to try. The catch? There’s a password to get in. You all head out for the evening and when you get to the door, your friends simply give the password and are granted access. But when you reach the door, you’re told that the password you gave was wrong. Everyone else can enjoy the experience uninhibited. But you? Access denied. Imagine a slightly different scenario. The password worked for the front door; but once you got inside, you found out that there was a second password for the bathroom and no one would give it to you. Can you really be comfortable enjoying an evening out at the trendy new place if you can’t use the bathroom there? What if this same scenario kept happening to you at different places because no one could be bothered to share the passwords?