More Than An Inspiring Story
By Lyra Thompson • Oct 11, 2024
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A few years ago, I watched a TED talk by Stella Young titled “I’m not your inspiration, thank you very much.” In this talk, Stella, who has a disability, expressed how people with disabilities are often seen as an “inspiration” to able-bodied people for just existing. As a person with a disability myself, I know this is true.
I don’t always “look disabled” because I can do a lot of things the same way as everyone else, so I haven’t really heard the word “inspiration” used to describe me. However, I see it a lot in online comment sections or news headlines. Say there’s a story about a high school valedictorian who happens to be in a wheelchair. If you look at the comment section, chances are you’ll find people applauding them and calling them “inspiring.”
When people say that a person with a disability is an inspiration, it’s usually not even for anything out of the ordinary. A blind person graduating college is not any more of an accomplishment than a sighted person graduating college. Just because someone has a disability, that doesn’t make their normal actions more special.
That’s not to say that a person with a disability can’t do something inspiring. Winning a medal in the Paralympics is a big accomplishment, but so is winning a medal in the Olympics. The fact that the Paralympics are for people with disabilities doesn’t make them inherently more of an accomplishment than the regular Olympics.
The whole concept of disability inspiration is ableist and problematic. By saying a person with a disability is inspirational, you’re essentially saying that you didn’t expect them to be able to accomplish something in the first place, or that their disability makes them less capable of doing things everybody can do. In other words, it says that people with disabilities are so incompetent and helpless that any achievement is an impressive feat.
Of course, a person with a disability might not be able to accomplish something in the same way as everyone else, but that doesn’t mean that task is impossible. I need accommodations to be able to do certain things, but that doesn’t mean I can’t do them at all, I just do them a little differently. Don’t underestimate how much a person with a disability can achieve with a few accommodations.
Living with a disability comes with many challenges, but that doesn’t mean that everything we do is inspirational. We make changes and adapt things in our life because we have to, not because we’re trying to inspire people to overcome their hardships. When I have use accommodations or accomplish a task in a different way than someone else, I don’t think of myself as doing something inspiring, I’m just making it possible for me to do that thing the same way as everyone else.
Don’t have low expectations for people with disabilities. Recognize and applaud them for achieving big things worthy of praise just like you’d recognize an able-bodied person but don’t put them up on a pedestal just because they have a disability and therefore more impressive because of their accomplishments. People with disabilities are not an inspiration just for living their life a little differently.
Lyra is a former participant of Envision programs. You can view more of her work at lyrat16.wixsite.com/lyra-portfolio