We live in an ableist world that defines potential against arbitrary values that change over time and context. A person in a wheelchair is only disabled because the majority of the world uses two legs to get around. A person who is intellectually disabled is only disabled because the majority of our society values certain cognitive skills and learning styles over others. A person who is blind is only disabled because the majority of society relies heavily on their sight. What modern day societies view as important is how we create our society. Our roads, schools, buildings, are all created with this in mind. Judging another human’s potential through the lens of their disability is not only a futile exercise, but it creates a hierarchy of worth. It is dangerous. If most of us had one arm and were not neurologically wired to do math, the world would have developed to favor those characteristics. Disability and a person’s potential are defined by the world’s ability to interact meaningfully with them, and not the other way around. Potential is simply a mirror, reflecting the world’s biases, but having nothing to do with an individual himself/herself. So let’s stop drawing lines. We are all disabled, we are all abled. We are all different, we are all typical. Let’s include each life into the web our collective potential, simply because we value human life. No one is born with a smaller bottle or balloon. Potential is potential, simply by living, no matter how we are born or how our life’s events unfold. We are all infinite by our very existence.
Posted on: Fri, 07 Jun 2013 23:15:42 +0000
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