DISABILITY IS NOT INABILITY: 5 Important Things To Keep In Mind When Dealing With A Person Who Has A Disability
DISABILITY IS NOT INABILITY: 5 Important Things To Keep In Mind When Dealing With A Person Who Has A Disability

It is said that you cannot really relate to the issues that another person faces unless you have gone through something similar in the past. Today, many people do not really know how they should behave, act or even relate with people with disabilities. bsm motability. Read on to understand five of the most crucial points you should always keep in mind when dealing with any individual who has a disability.
1. Disabilities vary, and, there is none that is ‘better’ or ‘worse’
The scope of conditions that can be classified as disabilities are wide and they vary greatly. Each disability is unique and each disability usually requires a different type of response. Always remember that each disability usually presents unique practical barriers, social hurdles and mental hardships to the affected individual. Further, the stigma that a person with a disability usually suffers from when in an external environment, when dealing with other people, or when going through their day to day life usually varies depending on their specific type of disability.
2. You should always treat a person with a disability with the utmost respect all times
As we mentioned earlier, disabilities vary, and, each type of disability calls for different responses.
For example, people who have mobility issues need to have access to wheelchairs, walkers, canes, and most importantly they need to live in a neighbourhood and residence that has been modified to suit their mobility impairments. On the other hand, persons who have hearing or speaking issues require hearing devices. Additionally, they also need you to be patient with them when they are communicating so that they are able to effectively communicate, be heard and navigate the world.
3. Living with a disability can be daunting, but it isn’t always as bad as you may imagine
True, most people who live with disabilities tend experience hardships because of their conditions. However, contrary to popular belief, most of the hardships that people with disabilities face do not often come from their conditions rather they often arise because of their living environments as well as how other people relate to them.
To understand the point above better, try and visualize a pie chart. For a person with a disability, there is a different ratio between the suffering brought about directly by their condition and the indirect suffering that can be attributed to lack of accessibility, insensitivity by other people and systemic failures to create an enabling environment for people who suffer from the condition.
Some days, people who suffer from a disability are mostly affected by the symptoms that come with their condition. On other days, these people tend to suffer less from their impairments but more from other struggles they are faced with in their day to day lives such as problems in conveniently accessing places they need to go as well as insensitive comments hurled by persons who are without any disability.
4. There are some disabled people who benefit from privilege, but not all do!
In Game of Thrones, Tyrion Lannister – A character with a disability, succinctly puts this point across when he comments, “If you’re going to be a cripple, it’s better to be a rich cripple.” Earlier in the plot, he also remarks, that had he been born into an ordinary family instead of one of the richest families in the Kingdom, he would most likely have been killed at birth.
The point is this… Many people who have disabilities share experiences but depending on one’s background, the inequalities that people with disabilities share often differ. These inequalities in social status tend to have a huge influence on how every disabled person lives their life and the experiences that they go through.
5. Most persons who have a disability want to be seen, heard, believed, and most importantly, they want to be taken seriously
For most disabled people, visibility tends to be a very complicated thing. The greatest irony irony about living with a disability is that though the disability is often hard to miss, most people tend to feel invisible and long for acknowledgement. At the same time, some people tend to work extra hard to hide their disability in the hope that they will not be seen or that their disability will not overshadow their other qualities. However, when all is said and done, one thing remains true and clear: All people with disabilities want to be seen, noticed and accepted that they are just as human as everyone else despite their condition.