Fighting the Stereotypes by Chris Viola

Sarah Evans, another blogger at Ability Online, recently mentioned in one of her articles that people with disabilities are often stereotyped. Using her personal research on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as her example, Sarah describes how many aspects of it are misunderstood by both writers and the general public. This is something that makes life even more difficult for us. If we mention to people that we have a condition, people make assumptions about our needs and our capabilities that may not be true at all. Here, I’ll talk about why this happens, and how to help fight the stereotypes.

I think one of the reasons people stereotype is pop-culture. Characters are often defined by their condition. The reason here is simple and can be looked at simply by thinking about what pop-culture really is: a series of fictional stories designed for the purpose of entertainment. Watching a middle-aged character wake up, go to work, come home do house work, engage in a hobby and then go to sleep would be boring, even though it would be possibly the most realistic portrayal of the majority of people’s lives. This is why almost no shows or movies are about that. Also, because often, disabilities are so complicated and have so many little ins-and-outs that they’re almost impossible to portray realistically on TV, and would still be a challenge to portray in full-length movies. These normally wouldn’t be a problem, as pop-culture isn’t designed to be entertainment, but that does lead to another problem, being that people often over-simplify.

Many people say, "I have a brother/sister/cousin/other relative with (insert disability here) so I know all about it." This is something that affects both the disabled and those with mental illness, which give us a similar problem: we are being compared to a single person. Stereotyping a disability is like stereotyping a race, gender or sexual orientation.

It is difficult to get people to stop stereotyping those who live with disabilities. This behaviour is a product of ignorance, and some people don't care to be in the know. Please bear in mind that most people are willing to be more sensitive and will learn, if given the chance. The key is to use whatever resources you have at your disposal to educate people. A former classmate of mine from college who is on the autistic spectrum recently posted a link to an article on Cracked.com to his Facebook page. The article explains some things about having autism that many people don’t know. The points in the article were bang on.

If you're in a position to educate people about your disability, then you should do so. Write, forward articles, be interviewed, or do whatever you can. If you want to learn about living with disabilities, then please do some research. As I stated in the opening paragraph, Sarah Evans simply did some research to find articles about the truth on PTSD. Sometimes either explaining the truth, or showing what others have said about it can lead to you educating someone, doing them, yourself, and society as a whole, a small favour.

Fitting In: The Importance of Finding the Right Friends by Chris Viola

One thing that almost all people with a disability share is the difficulty of finding friends. Finding friends to avoid isolation is important to improve one's self-esteem, happiness and mental health. However, finding the 'wrong' friend can be as bad as having no friends at all.

Those who live with disability are often seen by others as being easy to take advantage of and are especially vulnerable if they appear to have something others may want, such as money. When low on friends, I’ve resorted at times to just being happy with ‘whoever spends any time with me,' which often leads to making poor choices. As someone with Asperger’s, I face many of these challenges, and have made poor choices myself in regards to friendship. Giving some examples, but without naming any names, I’ve had friends who would call me names or insult me on a regular basis, threaten to not be my friend if I didn’t do favours which I realise now were unreasonable, threaten violence against me, say they’re better than me, break commitments without telling me and avoid helping me even when I asked little things from them. Do these look familiar to you? Even if you’re lucky enough not to have experienced them, you likely recognize them as signs of bullying.

Luckily, I noticed these things later when I started making other friends, who would do nice things for me without even being asked. Whenever I said I couldn’t make a commitment, they would say it was ‘okay.' They’d say things that would boost my confidence, not lower it. I also noticed that many of these people were also the subject of bullying, and I began to think. Maybe, since they’ve been bullied so much as well, they knew what it was like, and would never dare do that to anyone else. I know after what I experienced that I was certainly in that mindset.

If you have any doubt about your friends, AbilityOnline offers two resources to its members. The first is called Friendship Builder that describes the qualities to look out for in fake friends. Another is Bully Bouncer that shows you how to deal with bullies. I encourage you to look at those resources to make sure that you are able to surround yourself friends who are good for you.

Chris Viola is currently studying Public Relations at Mohawk College.

Yes You Can! Inspiration for Those with a Disability by Chris Viola

A quick look in the dictionary under disability gave me the result 'the condition of being physically or mentally impaired.' This seems to give off the impression that those who have a disability are 'objectively worse' than those who don’t, which is false. Many disabilities give people something special, and many people who have one, would not give up their disability even if given the opportunity.

The famous ‘Ted Talks’ sessions often feature people with a disability. They talk about, not only the trouble they’ve overcome, but also the good things that their disability has given them. The well-known autism advocate Temple Grandin, who is on the spectrum herself, notes in her video ‘The WorldNeeds all Kinds of Minds’ that "Einstein and Mozart and Tesla would all probably be diagnosed as autistic spectrum today," saying that their way of seeing the world differently allowed them to create new their breakthrough theories, timeless music and brilliant inventions, respectively.

Daniel Wendler says that after his diagnosis with Asperger’s, he began to take notes on social skills, read many books on the subject and said he "went from social outcast to party planner." Nick Vujicic, who was born limbless, mentioned he "likes to change obstacles into opportunities," and now regularly makes a living giving some of the most attended inspirational speeches in all corners of the globe. Maysoon Zayid, who has Cerebral Palsy noted in her hilarious video that she had not only become able to live a normal life but that she had overcome her disability enough to even dance on Broadway.

Something that I am definitely not saying is that this is easy, as each of these four people worked extremely hard in order to reach their goals, and still weren’t guaranteed them. What I am saying, however, is that it is possible and that yes, a normal, functioning life is more than possible for someone with a disability.