are you your disability?

"Disabilities is an umbrella term, covering impairments, activity limitations, and participation restrictions. An impairment is a problem in body function or structure; an activity limitation is a difficulty encountered by an individual in executing a task or action; while a participation restriction is a problem experienced by an individual in involvement in life situations." 

-the person who makes up definitions for the World Health Organization

I think about disability a lot. Why? I just do. Pretty sure many people don't think about it at all, so maybe I'm overcompensating? Somebody's got to think about it, right?

Tonight, I'm thinking about it in terms of labels and identity.

What is a "disabled person"? Looking at the WHO definition above, a person with a disability has an impairment (or health condition) of some kind --cognitive, sensory, motor, etc. There is generally something the person can't do as a result of the impairment. Sometimes that thing the person can't do is an activity; sometimes, it's more broad participation in life type stuff. There are disabilities based in chronic conditions, or that come and go with conditions that improve and worsen at various times, or that are based in parts of the body that are missing, or that there are too many of, or so on and so forth. Disabilities can be based in genetics, or they can be based in something that happened yesterday. Disability is a very complex thing.

It's hard to think about people being defined in terms of what they can't do. To be defined by one part of who you are as a person, and for that part to be something that isn't [fill in the blank] enough? It seems overly restrictive.

That's when we wander over toward differently abled and "I don't see the disability". In its own way, this seems restrictive, too. Don't stare. We don't talk about that. Move along --there's nothing to see here.

I'm all for treating people like people. I'm all for acknowledging differences. I'm all for identifying ways in which we are the same. 

And I'm all for listening when you communicate about what's important to you. You may or may not be your disability. More than likely, it's not an either-or thing.

I'll let you decide.