Re: Disability versus ability
I think it's toxic positivity drivel to say it's not a disability, or even worse, it's just a different type of ability. If an individual doesn't possess a functional ability that is normal for humans, that individual has a disability. This is where I feel people get themselves messed up. They see all this crap about it being a different way to look at things, and that basically programs their brain to start deflecting hard truths.
If you swallow the truth that you are blind, that you lack an ability that most other people have, and that you will experience trials and tribulations that others will not, you will be on the way to a better life. You will work through the emotional load that you will not get to do some of the things you want to in your life, because of some genetic bullshit. You will get to the other side and be able to tell yourself something like, "Well, even though I will never be a fighter pilot, I can still swim, run a marathon, cook, get married and have children, etc.
To me, it's maladaptive to hide away from the fact that you have a disability. And you don't have to let it define you. I see being disabled as having two separate meanings. The first is a legal or literal term meaning simply that one does not possess a particular ability or abilities intrinsic to human beings. The second is more like a state of mind or a state of being. In other words, someone may be considered technically disabled, but not so if the life they lead is one where they do all the things that anyone else would do.
It gets crazier though, because what about someone with a prosthetic leg? With the leg on, they're functional, so they're not really disabled per se. With these new ones that are bionic in the way they work and not just a wooden peg, what happens if the leg malfunctions? Well then they are disabled. But are they really ever not. With the leg, they can walk. If they have a modern prosthetic, they can run and do all sorts of stuff. So the ability to use both limbs isn't lost.
But what I really don't like are when people try to skate around from just saying words like blind. We don't need to confuse the situation more with terms like, "Differently abled" which really irks me by the way. People should be taught that blind or deaf isn't a naughty word and that people won't take offense to it. Using terms like that just helps to widen the gulf between disabled and non-disabled people even further. I sort of wish people would be willing to point out the commonalities between the two, rather than the differences. Because we really do want many of the same things as everyone else.
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