DISABILITY-A CONCEPT TO RECONSIDER

"Disability is not a brave struggle or ‘courage in the face of adversity.’ Disability is an art. It’s an ingenious way to live."

-Neil Marcus

(A famous actor diagnosed with dystonia)

When I came across the topic of ‘disability’... initially I thought I will be able to 

manage to write paragraphs regarding it.Just when I sat down to pen down my thoughts, did I realize that it wasn’t an easy job to do. I realized I had no clue as to how to go about the topic.Ironically, it just happened that I sprained my ankle today and was limping the whole evening. The stares people around gave me,Few of them offering to help me carry bags, those sympathetic tones which I heard, as a matter of fact, did annoy me a bit. It is rude of me to say but I really couldn’t stand the idea of people sympathizing over a sprained ankle. That’s when it struck me what exactly I am going to write today regarding ‘disability.

Disability has become more of a house-hold term for me. It might be because of the fact that I have come across this term almost my whole of professional student life. Disabled people are the ones who I deal with and will deal with the rest of my professional life. Maybe this vast exposure to those disabled people has made me immune to the term ‘DISABILITY’. My outlook regarding a disabled person has changed completely… and I believe it isn’t just me who thinks the same.

It is less sympathy and more empathy a patient yearns for, from other social beings. This sect of people want us, to consider them less different from us, normals. They want us to look at them like any other normal being. They want us to believe that they are capable of creating difference in the world just like any of us dream of.

And what do we do?! 

We sympathize them, encourage dependence to an extent that they are demotivated and they end up thinking they are incapable of doing anything productive independently in their life. This is then followed by the depression phase and serious psychological imbalance… and who is to blame?! 

                                                          ‘Us’ it is!!

"It is a waste of time to be angry about my disability. One has to get on with life and I haven't done badly. People won't have time for you if you are always angry or complaining."

- Stephen Hawking

(a famous physicist with motor neuron disease)

And yet, in spite of these differences, we have seen miracles performed by these ‘disabled’ people. From the field of music to literature... science to sports, we have come across a number of‘disabled’ people who have created history in their field of interest in spite of their limitations.

Talk about Helen Kellerto Stephen Hawking toLudwig Van Beethoven to Marla Runyan to Tom Cruise to our very own Sudha Chandran… they fought their disability and has created histories. I would rather address these above mentioned people and many similar to them as ‘differently-abled’ than ‘disabled’!

"If I regarded my life from the point of view of the pessimist, I should be undone. I should seek in vain for the light that does not visit my eyes and the music that does not ring in my ears. I should beg night and day and never be satisfied. I should sit apart in awful solitude, a prey to fear and despair. But since I consider it a duty to myself and to others to be happy, I escape a misery worse than any physical deprivation."

- Helen Keller

(a deaf and blind author and a lecturer)

The definition of disability is the inability of a person to accomplish his roles independently due to his limitations. The limitations can be physical, mental, social, etc. 

The definition of disability still stands true but the usage of the term can vary from person to person. So let us not be judgmental about people with any kind of limitations.

 We never know, one of them just can be a tremendous boon to the world. We should do our part as social-beings in supporting these ‘differently-abled’ people and help them overcome their limitations and make a difference in their world, our world. 

So on the occasion of ‘INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITY’; which falls on 3^rd December, we should aim at understanding disability issues and mobilize support for the dignity, rights and well-being of persons with disabilities. 

We should also seek to increase awareness of gains to be derived from the integration of persons with disabilities in every aspect of political, social, economic and cultural life.

 So let us all be responsible social beings and take huge stride towards a humanistic nation.

"Some people are always grumbling because roses have thorns; I am thankful thorns have roses"

- Alphonse Karr

(novelist)

JUMANA KP

BOT-3^rd year