Personal feelings about disability

Disability and Me

So, my diagnosis was both later in life (36 years young!), and an absolute revelation. I stopped viewing myself as hard work sometimes, and instead said ‘‘Oh, do not worry it is just my ADHD’.

I also learnt that ADHD  is my own personal superpower. I am still learning how to harness it, but I am getting there, and I am pretty sure that is a lifelong journey. However there was one thing I didn’t realise, even after my diagnosis: I have a disability.

I found out when our Top Boss, Nancy Doyle, was awarded number 10 on The Shaw Trust 100 Disability Power List for people with disability and impairments. I was shocked she was on the list. Not because she does not do amazing things such as promoting neurodiversity, but because I did not think she was disabled. She has got the energy of a Duracell bunny, a workload like an NHS junior doctor, and the ability to reframe a negative idea into an explosion of joy. Basically, she has Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)! What exactly is disabled about that? And wait a minute… If she is disabled, then so I am!

And that got me thinking two different, but entwined, ideas simultaneously: “What is the word disabled all about?” and “Who defines what disabled is anyway?”

Who has the right to label me, (or anyone else for that matter), as being less able than anyone else? It is basically a social construct depending on who you have in your society. Imagine you grew up in an isolated tribe in the Amazon with no access to a western style of medicine, would you be disabled if there was no word for your condition? You would just find a role that suited your talents and get on with it. Dyslexia would not exist if you didn’t have a written language. Instead, those people we would call ‘disabled’ would be highly prized because they might well have excellent storytelling gifts, for passing on oral histories and traditions.

So basically what I think needs to change is people’s perceptions of disability. I do not call myself disabled; I might be terrible at time keeping, but I can read huge amounts of text in an incredibly small space of time. I struggle to stop procrastinating but my hyperfocus means I can achieve huge amounts of work in half the time it might take my neurotypical peers. So why am I the disabled one?

Nobody should have the right to limit what they feel others can do, instead we should all encouraging each other to find our skills and use them wisely. Embrace diversity and be respectful.

Steph