I don’t know if it’s just me or not, but it seems as though
social issues such as feminism and racism are dominating in the social
atmosphere of today’s society. Especially with the recently inaugurated President
Donald Trump, these issues have become full-tilt in America. They are everywhere!
To illustrate the magnitude of their frequency, just search CNN news on Google
and head to CNN’s homepage. The first article that pops up is “‘This is not a
Muslim ban’” with a picture of Trump holding up his executive order concerning
extreme vetting. This is just one
example from the vast sea of others. Honestly, I feel like these issues are so
common nowadays that they are masking other equally important issues from the
public eye. Now don’t get me wrong; Feminism and racism are very prevalent and
important but there are others that deserve attention. One of these issues is disability.
I have always thought of disability as something “special”
or abnormal and I am pretty sure that most of you are in the same boat as me.
It is almost as if our eyes are preprogrammed to unconsciously view disabled
people completely different from ordinary people. It wasn’t until I read Nancy
Mairs’s article titled “Disability” when I snapped out of my default unconsciousness
and realized that disabled people are still people after all. Even though Mairs
is disabled through Multiple Sclerosis, she still “smear[s] [her] skin with
lotions,” “drive[s] a car,” and “eat[s] pizza” just like any other consumer.
She sees no reason why she should be seen “just like every other woman of [her]
age” (Mairs 14). She also mentions that the media unjustly only views the
disabled via the disability that he or she has. It’s almost as if they walk around
with signs all day explicitly stating, “I am disabled so please see me
differently.” I wholeheartedly agree with Mairs. We shouldn’t just avoid
disabled people. In fact, by doing so, we are the ones that are actually disabled
since we blind ourselves from the
commonalities of everyday life: disability.
