What makes a person disabled? By definition, it is someone who is unable to perform the average day-to-day tasks that an able person could. But why?
If society collectively decided to build stairs that are four feet high, most people would not be able to use them. They simply wouldn’t be able to. They would be disabled.
It isn’t the person that needs to be fixed or to be made to feel inferior or incapable. It is the culture, the environment, the infrastructure, that needs a change.
This perspective is not a new idea; a disabled person is only disabled because the society has made it so. It is a cultural definition and obstacle.
Unfortunately, a culture is rigid by definition. It may just be simpler to migrate and assimilate into a more compatible culture. It would be a privilege.
In some Native American tribes, speech impairment is not seen as a disability as they simply don’t see it as a problem. It is an idea hard to grasp for most people in our modern society. “How could that be? Do they not talk? How can it not be a problem? It must surely hinder their ability to communicate!” It doesn’t; they don’t care.
A disability can be invisible. Anyone can be disabled. It isn’t their fault, nor is it a flaw. Only limits that do exist for them are the limits imposed by society, whether it be by inaction or purpose.
Anyone with a disability doesn’t need pity, doesn’t need attention, doesn’t need to be told that they are brave. It may be harder to perform day-to-day tasks, but that’s true for every living thing — just like how a bird can get to places quicker than any of us. Is a bird more abled than an able person?
That’s why it’s called accessibility. Just to make sure that there are no four feet high stairs. Just to make sure that you can access any place. Just to make sure it’s not harder. Just to make sure the world is a freer and equal place, for all humans.