Stop Feeling Sorry for People with Disabilities

Are you a person with a disability? Have you had a stranger come up to you and say how sorry they are to see you in that disabled state? Have you had someone feel so sad for you that they cried? I know that people with disabilities can relate to this and can answer yes to one of these questions. 

People with disabilities are not broken, there is no reason to feel sorry for a person with a disability. People with disabilities are people and just because they are different does not make them less or something to be sorry for.

I am a person with a disability, I am visually impaired. I have experienced this reaction from others before. A person once saw me with my white cane and I heard them say “oh how sad” and one time a person that I was interning for broke into tears when he was discussing my work on a panel on employment for the blind and visually impaired. I have also had people stop me in the street and start to pray for me.

I am not broken. I do not need to be fixed. I am different and may do things differently but that does not make me less of a person. I do not want your pity. I do not want any handouts. I do not want a free pass. I want to work for and earn anything I get. I just want to be treated like anyone else. I just wish that people would look at me and not immediately see different and feel sad but that they would give me a chance to show what I can do.

Stop feeling sorry for people with disabilities and instead treat us like any other person. In the end whether a person has a disability or not there will always be something different about them. Take the time to understand them and to see the value that the person has to offer instead of what they look like.

I hope that this will help everyone to have a better attitude towards people with disabilities.