Guest blog post: ‘Coming to terms with disability’ by Meriah Nichols

There are so many awesome bloggers who write about disability. The Disability Visibility Project is fortunate to have several as our media partners. One of them is Meriah Nichols, creator of A Little Moxie blog.

Check out one of her recent posts, “Coming to Terms with Disability in My Life”:

When I first see that phrase, I get an image in my head of a body wrestling with this unknown blob and the blob is “disability”. It’s like, we have this notion in our culture that “disability” is this big baddie, this sick, weak, unsexy unknown – and that we need to ‘overcome’ it, wrestle it down to the ground, stand with our foot on its chest and proudly say something Scott Hamilton-ish like, “there is no disability in life but a bad attitude.”

Or… we get to some point where we see the value in what people with disabilities do, which is to see, hear, walk, think, respond or feel in ways that are less mainstream than most. When that happens, I think there is usually this war with the word, “disability” itself and all kinds of stuff like “don’t dis my ability” , “differently abled” or even “special needs” come forth.

Coming to terms with disability for me was about the wrestling match with the blob, yeah, it was.

This is what happened:

I wrestled with the blob, I got that sucker under me, I stood up just like I was supposed to, I put my foot on its chest and when I looked down…. I realized I needed it.

I needed and desperately wanted that connection with others like me, who see, hear, walk, think, respond or feel in ways that are less mainstream than most. I didn’t want to feel alone, I didn’t want to push what was – dare I say? – special about me into the box of mainstream and not honor or develop those skills. I didn’t want to pretend my experience in this life is to be chalked up to “overcoming” because it’s not, it’s about experiencing, it’s about the choices that I make within the framework of possibility.

So I reached down and helped the blob up and embraced it.

And when I embraced it, it turned into a sparkly unicorn that farted rainbows.

For the complete blog post: http://www.meriahnichols.com/coming-terms-disability-life/

Meriah’s A Little Moxie blog: http://www.meriahnichols.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/meriah.nichols

Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/withmoxie/

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Email Alice: DisabilityVisibilityProject@gmail.com