Did you know that Wednesday, December 3, 2014 was International Day of People with Disability? I did not, but Vish did. He shared his thoughts about the day with me, and I wanted to share them with you (with his permission, of course), as I found them to be beautifully-stated and very thought-provoking:
“December 3rd is the International People with Disabilities Day.
I recently attended a seminar related to the topic of so-called ‘disabilities’. The participants were challenged to wrestle with three questions: 1) “What is Disability?”, 2) “What is Ability?”, and 3) “What is normal?”. It was such a thought-provoking discussion. At the end of the debate I was convinced that there is no such thing as a “disabled” person.
Given a specific goal to be accomplished, each of us may have disabilities, each of us may have special abilities and it’s perfectly normal to have such abilities and disabilities. We all have our unique set of challenges that we need to overcome to accomplish goals in our life, and often times we need help from the society and fellow human beings to get through those challenges.
The world is built by us so-called “able-bodied” people, and sometimes it makes it challenging for others who have a different set physical or mental attributes than most of us. That doesn’t make them “disabled”. Such individuals have a right to expect that their special needs be fulfilled so they can fully and productively participate in the social activities in this world we’ve built around us. We as a society need to hold each other’s hands and provide that help, whether the need is temporary or permanent; physical or mental. When innovation, technology and compassion come together there are hardly any special needs that cannot be fulfilled. The last thing those with a different set of physical or mental attributes than most need is pity. They need assistance just as any one of us needs assistance to get through challenges in our lives. OK, now I’ll get off the soapbox.
I came across this interesting video (see the link below) that shows how so called able-bodied people became “disabled” in a town built by people in wheel-chairs. I urge you to spend just 84 seconds of your time to watch video. It may change your perspective just as it did mine.
Here’s wishing everyone a very healthy, productive and normal life.
Let’s all celebrate the International People with Disabilities Day. If it were up to me I would rename it as ‘Normal People Day’. With over a billion people around the world with “disabilities”, it has to be normal.
Video link: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9s3NZaLhcc4”
Thank you so much for sharing your perspective on an important day and critical issue, Vish. Let’s all keep this dialogue going so that we may continue to support and create an inclusive environment in the ITS:Division, as well as the college.
ITS:Always fun, never boring
Respectfully submitted,
Linda Petro
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