Inspiration? More Like Admiration!

    People all over the world see disabled people in different lights, and although people like to use them as "inspiration", the more proper (and preferred) term would be, "admiration".  Disabled means one has a physical or mental condition affecting day-to-day abilities in the senses and body functions.  According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's 'Disability and Health Promotion' page, "61 million adults in the United States live with a disability" (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2022).  That is a huge chunk of people out of everyone and that is just in the United States alone.  Watching Stella Young's "I'm Not Your Inspiration" video made me view disabilities from a different point of view. I began to understand how disabled people should be respected and acknowledged for their accomplishments, and that they are not for people to get inspiration from.  Typically, one of the first words that comes to mind when people think of someone with a disability, is inspiration.  Stella Young's TED talk explains reasons why she hates being called an inspiration and how people view them as "inspiration porn."  You may be thinking, "what do you mean disabled people aren't an inspiration?"  You are right as a lot of people think of disabled people to be an inspiration for the sole reason of getting up every single day and still living their lives to the best of their abilities.  Young quotes a statement, "the only disability in life is a bad attitude," which she further explains is not true.  She makes an example of looking at a flight of stairs with a smile on one's face is not going to make a ramp magically appear.  She states that she wants to live in a world where disability is not an exception, but rather is the norm for everyone and further proves her point of why she dislikes people looking at her as an inspiration, but rather be respected for her choices that she commits every day (TED, 2014, 7:35).  Disabled people want to be seen and respected as if they didn't have a disability; they want to be looked at in the same light as everyone else.  Listening to this talk has opened up my eyes to viewing people with disabilities as normal people who are just living their normal life.  

    It is another stereotype, a disabled person being called an inspiration does not have the positive effect on them that we want it to have, in fact it does more damage.  What we want, is to see them as an admiration, which Jessica Kellgren-Fozard wrote about in her wonderful article, Why not all disabled people want to be seen as an inspiration. Her article is written on a similar basis as Young's, because they both share their experiences of why they does not want to be looked at as an inspiration to others.  Something that really speaks to me is when she talks about how she doesn't mind giving out positive motivation and inspiration to people, but would rather it be given out through her personality and what she has achieved.  Just like anyone else, she wants to be recognized for her accomplishments. She states that she would rather read a comment on a video she made about self-love and how someone has learned to love themselves than hear a random person on the street walking by her tell her how inspiring she is, just by the look of her physical disability (Kellgren-Fozard, 2018).

    After looking at the resources provided about disabilities being viewed as "inspiration porn," I agree that people should not be viewing disabled people as inspiration.  I have worked with both adults and kids of all ages who have disabilities and I treat them the same way I would treat any other person.  It is a shame that disabled people are not looked at the same way as any other normal person when they are humans too, they have the same god given rights as everyone else, and they have human blood running through their veins, just like you and me.  I wish people didn't think of them as a minority group or use improper stereotypes with them, but instead I wish everyone viewed disabled people as normal human beings, which they are.  I wish more people took the time to realize that these people should be looked at with admiration in this world and appreciated for the hardships that they had to overcome.

References

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2022, October 28). Disability impacts all of us infographic. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved January 22, 2023, from https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/disabilityandhealth/infographic-disability-impacts-all.html 

Kellgren-Fozard, J. (2018, June 13). Why not all disabled people want to be seen as 'an inspiration'. Cosmopolitan. Retrieved January 22, 2023, from https://www.cosmopolitan.com/uk/reports/a21345034/disabled-people-inspiration-inspiring/ 

TEDtalksDirector. (2014, June 9). I'm not your inspiration, thank you very much | stella young. YouTube. Retrieved January 22, 2023, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8K9Gg164Bsw