there are a lot of reasons i hate the idea of ”despite their disability” but one of the biggest is how it separates our disabilities from the uniqueness of our lives
people like stephen hawking have spoken about his illness focusing his thinking, leading to some of his greatest work; artists like toulouse-lautrec, frida kahlo, basquiat, van gogh - their disabilities were a vital part of the genius of their art; scientists like turing and einstein definitely had extraordinary ways of working, in part, because of their diverging neurotypes; monet created his famous water lilies in largely blue hues because, in his vision loss, that’s mainly what he could only see, or how harriet tubman’s epilepsy would influence her work in the underground railroad and fervent dedication to enslaved africans
beethoven’s symphonies are unique for the lack of high notes that he could not hear, ray charles and stevie wonder’s playing was shaped by the fact that one hand had to play each key while the other simultaneously read music notes in braille, then memorize it by ear after learning it, or even memorize it just by hearing it - claudia gordon, dickens, francisco goya, tom wiggins…
so many disabled people who are lauded - and even ones who aren’t famous but are always talked about as amazing ”despite their disability” - are always treated as abled people with an awfully sad flaw, and the ways in which disability influences how we create and see the world are totally denied to us in that recognition
my talents go hand-in-hand with my being disabled, and often are a direct result of it in some way - they are not talents that grieve the ”tragedy” of my being disabled and attempt to erase it, they are talents that express and celebrate it
(via ja-ll)
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