"So sorry that you have to use a wheelchair, but you look so happy and smiley"
"I would never have guessed that you were disabled, you're so happy"
"You don't look like a disabled person, you have such a gorgeous smile"
"I didn't realise you were ill because you smile"
These are seriously a few of the things I have had said to me over the last month and similar have been said to my mum about me.
As a disabled person I use a wheelchair, I go about my day to day life in said wheelchair. I am still a human being. There are days when I have my resting bitch face on and look like I will murder anyone who looks my way. Buut there are also days when I piss about and have a laugh with my family. Where I laugh at everything and get the giggles at something stupid. I'm always winding Ollie up & laughing at his reaction. I do suffer from depression but I would say I am a generally happy person who is usually laughing at something ridiculous or cracking a dirty joke.
I really cannot get my head around this whole I don't think of you as disabled because you smile mentality. Are disabled people supposed to just sit around crying over how shit our bodies are? I mean the world doesn't make it easy but we still like to get out and enjoy life.
If you want to compliment my smile go for it but don't then cancel it out by ignoring my disability. Being disabled isn't a bad thing, it just is what I am. It is not a compliment telling me I don't look disabled. You just look ignorant, especially when you back up this claim with the fact I smile. Being disabled is not an insult.
Disabled people are human beings. We smile, we laugh, we cry, we take selfies. We just seem to do it with a lot more judgement.
So please bear this in mind next time you want to tell someone you don't think of them as disabled because they laugh and joke.
Beth...x
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