Disabled.
People say
16,000 words a day
But one word no one wants to
say: disabled.
Cripped
Crip
Gimp
Gump
Differently-
Abled
Special
Stumpy
Slow
Retard
Crazy
Sick
Lame
Stricken
Sufferer
Afflicted
Low functioning
High functioning
Pathetic
Brave
Needy
Helpless
Hopeless
Must be saved
Shouldn’t be doing that
Why aren’t they doing more?
Lazy
Lonely
Not normal
Bore
Faker
Drama queen
Handicapped
Handicapable
Idiots
Imbeciles
Morons
Dull
Feeble
Special needs
Extra needs
Additional needs
Different
Other
Exceptional
Wheelchair-bound
Stuck in
Unable
But no one can ever simply
Say Disabled?
It’s amazing
How many ways you say
That you don’t want you to
Say disabled
Even though disabled
People everywhere
Have made it clear
That we want you to
Say disabled.
They say a chimpanzee and a human have 99% of the same DNA.
So the difference between a disabled person and an abled one must be less than 1%
Unless you think a chimpanzee is more like you than we are?
So I ask you to please just
Say disabled.
We aren’t low functioning
Just because we function differently from you.
We aren’t helpless just because we need help sometimes —
Because all people do.
We aren’t “special” in your slick Southern-accent way
of saying something good but really meaning something bad
Because it would be impolite to discuss inconvenient realities in mixed company —
Special is day old bread and we are fully-functioning humans
Who happen to do one or two things differently
Because all people do.
We aren’t chimpanzees.
We are more alike than different.
We aren’t exceptional, we’re normal.
We just happen to use a chair to get around instead of walking
Or a feeding tube instead of eating by mouth.
A disability is just a different way of doing something
It’s a physical or mental condition that makes one part of living more difficult for us
Or maybe it’s society that makes life more difficult because we’re different than you
And no one expected us to exist but we do.
Our disability is not a secret; it’s an important part of us.
A part we’re proud of because it makes us who we are.
We see the world differently
And that’s a type of diversity.
We are perfectly imperfect
Like all people are.
So can you please
Say disabled?
