Disability Wellness

The primary need of all human beings is to have a sense of acknowledgment, community, and belonging.  No one wants to feel inferior.  Yet any  person seen or treated as disabled, will tell you that the challenges of their fulfilment of this need, and being repeatedly subjected to a characterization of otherness prevails in virtually every aspect of their  life experience. Succinctly  put, theirs is a life of otherism. It is premised upon us seeing and perceiving a condition of disability as an aberration of the normal physical or mental form that we expect to see or perceive in our fellow human beings, particularly because of our preoccupation with our physical forms.  

In being seen, and treated as disabled in society, persons tend to be indiscriminately placed, or sometimes misplaced, along a spectrum or continuum of what is coined as Ableism.  Ableism is based on a presumption that people who consider themselves as non-disabled are the norm or standard of human life.  People presumed to be able-bodied tend to naturally think of themselves as part of ableism and are also predisposed to dismiss any identification with disability.  But where one is deemed to fit along this spectrum or continuum of ableism is really  only a determination arising from a subjective perception or belief.  Similarly, it is also a matter of perception or belief as to where a person seen as disabled, or affected by circumstances of disability believes he or she is to fit in along that spectrum or continuum.  For the most part however, persons seen or treated as disabled usually find themselves outside the spectrum or continuum of ableism, because there is a similar predisposition that anyone seen to be disabled is automatically relegated to being presumed to be not able.  Together, these predispositions of ableism foster a propensity of humankind to facilitate more ableism, and also, whether by design or default, knowingly and unknowingly foster Disablism, Disabilitism, and Disabledism.   Ableism in this sense both unknowingly and knowingly creates disablements, and discrimination against persons with circumstances of disability. 

All of this said however, there can be no denying or dismissal of the notion of ableism in human society.  Human beings by nature are ablists and always will tend to be so because it is human nature to seek and develop ability and become more able in the human experience.  That is essentially what moves us forward as humankind.  The trailer for the upcoming movie Fixed illustrates some aspects of this character of humanity.  In the meantime however, we must still find ways to counter the effects of Disablism, Disabilitism, and Disabledism inorder that persons with circumstances of disability may restore and maintain wellness and dignity in their lives, because irrespective of our ablist nature, difference and diversity amongst us in our abilities is also an integral attribute of ourselves as human beings.