So often, it’s the little things that spark my frustration. True, the broad, sweeping issues matter more in the grand scheme, but the minor, day-to-day irritations eat at me the most. Instructions I can’t read, inaccessible features of a website, people asking rude questions–these annoyances burrow beneath my skin and make me curse my disability (or, more accurately, the way the world treats that disability).
There’s another side to this, however. Just as I’m most ruffled by the tiniest details, so too am I cheered by equally inconsequential things. A door opened at just the right time, a person taking the time to describe an image, information provided in an alternate format—these are the gestures and accommodations that remind me the world is not falling apart. No matter how hopeless I feel, how acute my frustration, how black my outlook, there will always be some mundane occurrence or other to soothe my spirit, at least for a while.
My fundamental mistake, I think, is failing to acknowledge these happenings and give myself the space to be grateful. It’s easy to express gratitude for the landmark victories and grand gestures, but I’m less likely to stop what I’m doing and spend a moment simply appreciating the good that’s quietly and often anonymously done in the world each day.
My regular readers know just how averse I am to trumpeting positive mantras and ignoring uncomfortable truths. Disability advocacy is still sorely needed. The world has a long, long way to go before the personhood and humanity of people with disabilities is fully recognized and integrated into society’s structure. So many great leaps have yet to be taken, and there are a thousand battles left to fight. I’m aware of this, and so are fellow disabled people.
Yet, for my own well-being, I’m compelled to devote more energy to revelling in the simple kindness and thoughtfulness of others. Thanking a developer for prioritizing accessibility is, for now at least, just as important as calling another out for failing to do so. Writing social media posts about kindness, generosity, and hope should be as habitual as writing about injustice and prejudice. Venting my frustration is necessary, but expressing gratitude is necessary, too.
Even as we tell others how they have done wrong, we ought to tell them how they have done right. They may not listen or even care, but if we don’t give people the tools to improve, they never will. If we censure fellow disabled people, we must also build them up, for we all walk the same path.
I won’t close my eyes and make believe that the good outweighs the bad. I won’t ask anyone else to do that, either. Keep calling out what’s wrong in the world; your voice is vital, and if we do not speak, no one else will do so for us. In your own life, though, among those you come into direct contact with, focus on the good, as well. If a stranger does something you like, tell them so. If a disabled peer does something of which you approve, let them know.
Yes, we need to be watchful. We mustn’t become complacent and hide in a cocoon of warm, fuzzy feelings. That doesn’t mean we wouldn’t benefit from a few moments of happiness now and then, though.
So, take a moment. Think of the last time someone understood you, or supported you, or treated you the way you want to be treated. Reach back to that point—I hope it wasn’t too long ago—and remember how it made you feel.
Don’t forget.
It truly is the little things…
positivity
The Cult Of Positivity: 9 Inspirational Mantras I’m Very Sick Of Hearing
Everywhere I go, the magic of positivity is being touted. It seems that people think it can solve everything. Just smile, recite your affirmations, and will your problems away.
A positive outlook is helpful, and even necessary, but realism is equally helpful. While I know there are good intentions behind this movement, it’s not always what we need.
The only disability is a bad attitude.
Certainly a negative attitude is disabling, but no matter how glowingly positive you can be, it won’t influence employer attitudes, cure chronic illness, force the world to become accessible, or eliminate prejudice in a single bound.
Work hard and you’ll succeed.
C’mon, we all know this is patently untrue, right? Hard work is almost always required, but there are other things to consider, like luck, privilege, the nature of your disability, and the size of your network. In my experience, people who believe this are those who have either gotten lucky or have never known what it is to have the deck stacked against them.
All you need are positive mantras.
For some types of people, mantras don’t work and can even make things worse. Affirmations are great and all, but they’re not instant solutions. This isn’t The Secret: you can’t attract good fortune and happiness just by scrunching up your nose and wishing really, really hard. (Try it. I’ll wait.)
If you believe in yourself, others will, too.
Really? Reeeeeeally? You definitely have to have confidence and faith in your abilities, of course. That’s a given. We know we’re capable. We know we deserve an equal chance to prove ourselves. We know society doesn’t often give us the opportunity to show that we’re contributing members of society with as much to bring to the table as nondisabled people. This platitude is so absurd that I can’t even say much about it besides, um, … reeeeeally?!
If you want something enough, it will happen.
This is a very damaging thing to say, even if it’s meant to encourage people to keep the faith and commit to their aspirations. I can get behind that. If you don’t try, you won’t ever succeed. I just can’t ignore the fact that it’s almost entirely false, though, not to mention that it makes a ton of assumptions. Remember that old saying: you can want in one hand and spit in the other, and see which fills up first? Yeah, that.
If you’re polite and kind, you’ll influence people.
When I started the blog, I set out to be kind. I still maintain that kindness and empathy are underrated and they serve me well for the most part. The thing is, this line of reasoning makes it sound as though, with a smile and a gracious response, nondisabled people will immediately understand and change their perceptions and behaviours. It’s really rather astonishing that people expect this to actually work across the board. Few marginalized groups ever got anywhere by being nice all the time. Besides, I wasn’t put on this earth to educate people whenever they demand it. I enjoy it very much, but it’s not my purpose.
If you were more positive, it might cure you.
This is so offensive and short-sighted that I don’t even know what to say about it. People are always proposing outlandish cures for chronic pain or mental illness (and they love the idea that prayer will fix my broken eyes), and it makes my blood boil. It places the burden on us, as though the only thing keeping us from banishing our disabilities is our lack of faith.
If other disabled people can do it, you can, too.
This one drives me insane. It’s inspiring to watch fellow disabled people achieve great things, and it can spur others to try pushing the envelope, but everyone is different. You can’t assume all disabled people are the same. No one would say to a nondisabled person, “I know someone who can do ___, why can’t you?” We acknowledge that people in general have different strengths and diverse circumstances, so why doesn’t this apply to disabled people? (Personally, I found this statement demoralizing, and it made me feel terrible about myself for a long, long time.)
If you’re in a bad situation, just fix it.
This is a statement that is often put forward by people with disabilities, who assume that every other disabled person has the same advantages they do. It’s an awfully privileged thing to say, and it’s not very helpful besides. Believing that someone should just “figure it out” is often the result of a “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” mentality that simply won’t work for everyone. If you’re too poor to move to a more accessible city, unable to learn skills due to a lack of available instruction, or unable to afford an education, that shouldn’t reflect badly on you the way many disabled people seem to think it does. This is not an excuse to give up entirely and expect your life to improve. Yes, it’s important to explore your options and be creative—the world won’t hand things to you—but saying that someone can always “fix” their lives is condescending as all get-out, and discouraging as well.
Positivity has its place, and we shouldn’t forget that. Unfortunately, it’s currently in fashion, and it doesn’t look like it will be calming down any time soon. All you can do is ignore what’s useless, take what is useful, and find your own balance.
Chicken Soup For The Nondisabled Soul (And Why You Won’t Find It Here)
Along with being asked why I’m so angry and negative, I’m also advised, by disabled and nondisabled alike, to be more positive. Sure, I’m allowed to write about exploitation and discrimination, but why am I not serving up more feel-good, inspirational content? Where’s the comfort food? Where’s the acknowledgement that the world is, at its core, full of decent people who just don’t understand me? Where?!
I know what so many people want: they want chicken soup. They want brief, digestible, guilt-assuaging content that reminds them that life is essentially good, no matter what. People certainly enjoy rage-fuel, and my passionate posts receive far more attention than my sweet little gratitude pieces, but there is still, it seems, a demand for what we in the disabled community lovingly call “inspiration porn.” You know the stuff—content that portrays disabled people in a light most pleasing to the nondisabled eye.
In these pieces, we are courageous, steely individuals with more guts and gumption than anyone else would ever need (and the drive to use them). These pieces highlight inspiring people who have achieved ambitious heights, shattering expectations with an appealingly musical crash. They are high-powered athletes, successful entrepreneurs, survivors of devastating illness and injury, or astonishingly talented superstars. They have “overcome.” They have “transcended.” They have “made it.” Life as an everyday (boring, tragic) disabled person is a battle, and these unicorns have “won.”
The rest of us? Well, nobody really wants to hear about us unless we’ve been thrown out of a restaurant for having a service dog, or been paid less than minimum wage by Goodwill. The stories the public seems most attached to are the ones where a disabled person is either beating the odds in the face of adversity, or standing proud and unflappable after shameful treatment.
These reassuring bowls of chicken soup are not just favourites of those with no disabilities. They’re also beloved by many in the disabled community, who are convinced that the only right way to be disabled is to reach newsworthy goals. There’s only one acceptable narrative, and if we don’t fit neatly into it, we’re doing life wrong. We’re “surrendering.”
The only way to get the world to care about how we are mistreated is to uplift them. Make them admire us, and after that, maybe they’ll come around to respecting us as well. You know, eventually.
I like a good story as much as the next person. I’m proud of my disabled peers, who work hard and weather fierce storms along the way. I admire and respect their strength, knowing they wouldn’t have to be so strong in a different, more accessible world. I laugh and cry with them, exulting when they succeed and commiserating when they fail. I celebrate with them when they win big, and hold space for their anger when society fails to recognize who they are outside the default disability narrative of struggle. I share empowering stories when they do particularly well, so that others will know they are more capable than many might imagine. Inspiration is not, in itself, toxic, and positivity in moderation is indeed excellent nourishment for anyone’s soul, disabled or otherwise. The blog has been, I hope, a vehicle for empathy and understanding as often as advocacy and education.
We need to be vigilant, though, because it’s so tempting to conform to the expectation that demands we remain brave and heroic at all times. Living our lives does not necessarily require heroism, and we deal with disability because there’s no alternative, not because we’re superhumanly strong. The public doesn’t know that all the way down, though, not yet. If we don’t pay attention to how we are portrayed by popular media (and judged by each other), we will inadvertently place strain on ordinary disabled people simply trying to live their lives.
Not every disabled person is brave at all times. Not every disabled person will soar to new, hitherto unexpected places. Many of us will stumble, and fail, and give up, at least temporarily. Many of us will live quietly and contentedly, just like the majority of nondisabled people. We need to remember that it’s okay to stumble. It’s okay to falter. It’s okay to break away from the inspirational mantras circling in your head long enough to remember that you are not obligated to feature in the Huffington Post. Your life is meaningful because it is yours, and is not made less meaningful if you never break a glass ceiling or awe the masses. Plenty of people go through their whole lives without doing anything of note (I expect that will be my own lot, and I’m okay with that) and they’re still perfectly happy. You deserve an accessible, welcoming environment whether you’re “making a difference” or going quietly about your business. Our deeds do not render us eligible or ineligible for decent treatment. Having a disability or illness does not have to shape your personality or desires. Being brave and strong should not determine whether you deserve the struggles you’re up against.
Reach for the stars, if that is what you believe you should do. Don’t succumb to the doubts and misgivings of others. I’m the last person to limit you. While you’re aspiring, just keep in mind that you don’t have to function as living chicken soup. If you want to be ordinary, if you feel too exhausted to be strong at all times, or if you fail spectacularly, know that it’s an acceptable circumstance and, while you can always get back on the horse, you don’t need to be inspiring while you do it.
If you need to cry, to rage, to crumple, please do. Gather your support system close and let them carry you for a moment. You’re allowed.
In short, you do you.
Looking for chicken soup? Sorry, I’m fresh out.
“Why Are You So Angry?”
Almost every person who so much as encourages advocacy will face this question at some point, and while I don’t get it often (my writing style isn’t what you’d call vitriolic), I have been asked this multiple times. “Sure, you deal with a lot,” they say, “but do you really need to be so pissed off about it? Do you really need to write a whole blog whose purpose is to complain, and point out all that’s wrong with the world?” My answer to this is always the same: “Huh?”
I’m not an angry person. I like my life, even when it’s difficult, and I have great faith in the idea that human beings are capable of kindness and enlightenment. I spend most of my time just being Meagan, and the rest is usually spent trying to educate, not lay blame or spew hatred at the world at large. Yes, I do go on about what’s wrong with society. Yes, I do sometimes vent my frustration on a public forum. Yes, I get angry sometimes.
Do I spend my life in a state of perpetual fury? Do I direct hostility toward the sighted population? Do I focus more on being a malcontent than on trying to make the world that little bit better? Nope. I’d much rather bring positivity into this world than anything else, even as I’m being direct and unyielding concerning my rights as a human being.
I must confess that I’m shocked at the public’s expectation that we should be virtuous angels, patiently awaiting the day when the world will give a damn about the injustice that is built into society’s very structure. I am amazed that people are surprised when we object to systemic discrimination and harmful stereotyping. I mean, would they shoulder these things with unwavering grace? I don’t think so. That said, do we have the right to reject all efforts to reach out to us? I think not.
I did not create my blog with the intention of using it as a source of fatalistic ranting. I set out to maintain a safe space where ideas could be shared, questions could be answered, and advice could be dispensed. I’ve always kept one goal in mind: how can I foster empathy and understanding? How can I describe what my life is like, and how can I use that insight to help others?
I’d like to believe that regular readers realize I’m prone to seeing the good in the world. I hope they have noticed my tendency to right wrongs and offer solutions rather than condemn specific individuals and the mistakes they make. I hope, most of all, that I make my readers feel inspired, not hopeless, and determined, not angry. I resent those disabled people whose sole purpose appears to be making “normal” people miserable. I don’t expect them to maintain a sweet disposition when they’ve been fielding the same ignorant questions and withstanding the same discrimination for years on end. It’s acceptable to indulge anger; it can be a powerful tool if it’s used correctly.
That, of course, is the key: one must use anger judiciously. There’s enough rage-fuel online without worsening the problem. It wastes time and energy we could be devoting to initiatives that improve our lives. Accessibility and inclusiveness benefit us all, whether we’re disabled or not. We can all share in the fruits of disabled people’s labour. We can all read and write blogs like this one. If we get a bit angry sometimes? Well, I’d say that’s human, wouldn’t you?
Where's Your Dog? 