Yeah, I Have a Limp. What’s the Problem With That?

Yeah, I Have a Limp. What’s the Problem with That?

Picture this, you are in your early 20s and strolling across your dream college’s campus, wind blowing through your hair, you have not been this happy in a long time. You know you are in the right place for you and cannot wait to see what college brings to your life. This is something many people have experienced, yes? Only this time, something seems off. Then it hits you. It must be the limp. Since when did your limp bring so many stares and disheartened smiles? Just because you are “different” than most others, does not mean you are unworthy of the same treatment received by able-bodied people. In any other aspect of yourself, difference is applauded and wonderful, so why is it that your limp gets treated any differently? Disability is not a bad thing.

Unfortunately, the stares and smiles start to look like your new normal and, suddenly, you feel so small, so vulnerable; just when you thought that you finally had that new beginning you were looking for. Growing up in a small town in a small high school, everyone was so used to your limp that no one even batted an eye for years.  Guess that’s over now, huh? Can anyone even tell you what makes you so different than everyone else on campus? You are just as smart, funny, and beautiful as any other girl, you get good grades, wear nice clothes, and have great friends. Honestly, you are no different than the average girl, well except for the limp, but why is it that the limp is such a big deal anyway?

Why does your disability define you, you ask? With a disability, outsiders see you as lost potential or unworthy of the same standards that they hold those who are “able-bodied,” whatever that means. In this case, disability is taken in a quite literal, physical way that has to deal with the lack of ability due to a physical difference, not in the more abstract, mental health type of way. If we were looking at disabilities regarding mental health, this would be a completely different conversation due to the increased stigmas associated with mental health. In the case of physical disability, people pity you simply because they cannot understand what it is like to live any less than perfectly abled – they would hate to be you. Your disability is visible, and you become a spectacle to all around you. Would a difference in your personality single you out like that?

Erin Gallagher, Disabilities Don't Define Us, 2016

Differences in personalities among people don’t receive the same kind of stare that a physical disability does, but would you expect them to? Personality requires interaction with the bearer to establish a relationship while the limp allows people to make decisions about you before they even meet you, so of course it is not judged in the same way. Personalities are unique to every individual just like the body. Everybody has differences, whether it is due to body size, body markings like freckles, or that your ears are attached instead of loose at the bottom, your genes play a major part in these differences. Differences in personality are not stigmatized and pitied in the same way as a limp, though there is little difference between the two in all honesty. In this case, the limp is due to a long line of family member with bad hips. Your limp was unpredictable and influenced solely by your surroundings, just as your personality is. Additionally, everyone has different tastes and likes yet, once again, they are not pitied for being different from whatever the established “norm” may be. It must become our job to make disability a likeness to personality, taste, and preferences.

In a world where disability is talked about alongside differences in personality, taste, and preferences will be a world with less unspoken tension. Instead of allowing a person’s disability to define them and your preconceptions about them before you ever meet them, take the time to say hello, get to know them, and learn that they are not looking for your pity, in fact I bet they are looking for a friend, just like you are. At this point, I hope you can see that in many cases difference is celebrated. There is no reason that a difference in ability should be seen any differently than a difference in preferences between two people. Let’s all work toward acknowledgment instead of staring and love for all, no matter what their outward differences may be, and the world may just start to become a more accepting, happier place.