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What do you wish people understood about your health condition or disability? Dec 20, 2024 | By Lisa Speckhard Pasque, Mayo Clinic editor (@lisasp)
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@drdenise

What do you think it is about our culture that creates this response? I agree that it’s so common and wonder how we can work to change this bias.

Maybe books can help? We talked with author Laurie Frankel about her book One Two Three. We focused on Monday who has autism, but she has another character who she describes this way:
“ Mirabel is the smartest person anyone knows, and no one doubts it just because she can’t speak”
It’s an incredible world that she builds that accommodates everyone and doesn’t make these painful, erroneous assumptions. Maybe we could hope to shift our modern world to one more inclusive?

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Replies to "What do you think it is about our culture that creates this response? I agree that..."
Scott R L | @scottrl | Dec 20, 2024

It is certainly an interesting point.

During my lifetime, I have many attempts at making a cultural shift away from stereotypes. TV and movies were built on stereotypes -- Irish cops, frugal Scots, romantic Frenchmen, "inscrutable" Asians, etc.

I thought we had gotten past most of that, and perhaps we have in some ways.

But the snap judgment of disabled people persists. In some ways it's gotten worse; our political polarization is so extreme that anyone who shows any sign of being "one of them" is condemned on the spot. That lack of empathy extends quickly to other areas, like disability.

In my own case, there's an interesting counterpoint. People who talk to me on the phone are shocked when they see me and discover how limited my mobility is. On the phone, or even in my YouTube videos, I sound pretty normal and even articulate. It isn't until I move, or try to use my right arm, that people see how affected I am by the stroke.

I suppose that even reading my posts on Connect, people don't realize that I can only type one-handed; writing is arduous.

Anyway, there's a group in Dallas, To Be Like Me, that offers sensitivity training, mostly to schoolkids, giving them insight into what it's like to have certain disabilities. That's a start!

Have you seen my YouTube channel, From Recovery to Discovery?
Please take a look.
http://www.youtube.com/@srlucado/videos

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