Do you have a disability?

Question

I think most people have a disability. The inability to see their own failings. If they weren’t so short sighted they would stop using the word disabled or even worse the word normal. Compared to Stephen Hawkins you all have a learning disability, compared to Nurayev you all have moving disability. Instead of normal, substitute average then see if you still class yourself with that title. Get rid of the category disabled its an insult.

Answer 1

we share the same views on this one, just because society pigeon holes you, doesn't mean you have to. what is normal?

Answer 2

I don't see where you get off telling people what they have and what they don't have. Have you decided that you are now the new writer of the dictionary for Yahoo Answers and you are going to tell us if we are disable or we are not disabled. All of a sudden everyone has a disability. We all have failings. Ok, we are all not as bright as Stephen Hawkings, but that is not a disability. According to the State of NY I have a Disability. I am on Disability. I receive a Disability check into my checking account monthly. Does this word bother me, not in the least. I'm the one with the problem with my entire body, and I'm the one that has to live with the word, it is not an insult. Do you have a disability, if not, and the word does not apply to you, please mind your own business and find another group of people to bother. To be honest, we have our own problems, many of us a lot of problems and the last thing we need is some jerk coming along and telling us to rise up and demand that we no longer be called disabled. Guess what, we have other things to worry about in or lives, like how are we going to get around, how are we going to deal with surgery, and the biggie, how are we going to deal with pain, so who needs your pain.

Answer 3

The Government and Insurance agencies need to hear a "title" before they will pay benefits. Hence Disability Pensions. A lot of people are genuinely unable to work.

Could I be classified "average"? Only if the "average" person has spinal cord injuries that prevent them from sitting for very long, using their arms for very long, using repetitive arm movements, standing, walking any distance, a frozen shoulder that prevents them from driving, makes them scream when they dry their hands on a towel or reach for something, and if the "average" person has wide spread myofascial pain syndrome and fibromyalgia so that everything aches all the time and they have to THINK before they walk across the room, decide if getting a glass of water because they are thirsty is worth it, (sometimes) and only if the "average" person has impaired short term AND long term memory because they too have had a roof fall on them, and cant remember their education in Accounting, Financial Planning and Investment Consulting and now cant fill out their own tax return without making mistakes in it.

Without the label "Disabled" the only other "label" for me would be "homeless".

Stephen Hawkins for those who dont know has ALS, Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. sometimes called Lou Gehrig's Disease, It is a progressive, fatal, neurodegenerative disease caused by the degeneration of motor neurons, the nerve cells in the central nervous system that control voluntary muscle movement.

The disorder causes muscle weakness and atrophy throughout the body as both the upper and lower motor neurons degenerate and die, ceasing to send messages to muscles.

Unable to function, the muscles gradually weaken, atrophy, and develop fasciculations (twitches) because of denervation.

Eventually, the brain completely loses its ability to initiate and control voluntary movement. The disease does not debilitate the patient's mental functioning in the same manner as Alzheimer's disease or other neurological conditions.

Rather, those suffering advanced stages of the disease retain the same memories, personality, and intelligence they had before its onset.

Some people with ALS are also in EXTREME PAIN.

Answer 4

I appreciate your intentions, I know you are being sincere and yes, in a perfect world we wouldn't need to use words like "disabled" or "white" or "asian", we would all just be.

However, you went on to state some really bad examples. Being disabled means you are incapable of doing certain things an abled person could do, like walk, talk, hear, see, etc. It does NOT mean simply having some short comings or seeming less capable than another person.

The fact is, in the real world, the word Disabled is the best one we have, in the english language that is. And yes, I do want people to see me as disabled because if they didn't I wouldn't get the services I need.

If I call myself average, I wouldn't receve financial benefits, walking aids, a variety of services. I would be as good as dead.

Answer 5

However U may look at it,it just seems that way that some people are more surely better than others,no matter what others maybe try telling U otherwise. U just have to spend a good day in an average middle-class high school to be reminded how life is unfair,more to some people than to others!
Yes I do suffer from disability,It's called High-Functioning Autism and going though life with it sux b@lls!

Answer 6

I get the impression you think people who accept the term Disabled for themselves, are just a bunch of whiners looking for sympathy. While it is true that people with impairments range from mildly impaired to majorly impaired, and there are those who play upon the sympathies of others, it is likewise true that even though some might be blessed to be gifted in some way, in the ways they are impaired, they are not average. They are not able to function normally, in an average way, the way average people do. Now did you catch that? NOT ABLE, TO FUNCTION NORMALLY. Not able = disabled, it is a functional term not a label. All the people you categorized under a blanket of disability, may have problems, everybody has problems, but they are still able to function in a normal manner to carry on their lives in a average way.

Answer 7

What a really interesting "question" I agree that the category disabled should be got rid of - it really is an insult for a person to be labelled disabled.

Answer 8

It is quite apparent to me that you have little to no respect for those that are disabled. Each person is different when it comes to their disability. I feel that you are disabled because of your lack of compassion for those that perhaps have to work harder at either breathing, not being able to walk, hear or see. I really resent how non chalant you are about this. I suggest that you go to a Veteran's Administration Hospital and volunteer with those that are truly disabled. And tell that Marine that lost his legs, face to face that he isn't disabled. Without legs, he is more of a man than you are.

Answer 9

I agree with you that we all have a disability however I would base it off of what is expected to be socially correct. (because average can change and is far too subjective) But you need to draw from you disabilities and change them into strengths.
Like I have severe G.E.R.D. and I use this to advise people on this disorder and have learned much about medicine because of it.

Answer 10

In a perfect world that could happen but that's still in the future.

As for me I was diagnosed with mild CP (affects my brain: LD and speech impediment; and affects my mobility a little, I have tight hamstrings, however I walk pretty good).

As for me, I don't like the terms retarded (or variations of it), gimp, cripple, spaz. Handicapped, disabled, or even wheelchair bound is good or better.

Answer 11

This is an interesting question. I am not sure if I have a disability I actually only have one leg but then so do all monopedes so is it a disability?