Just imagine how our life would be like if everyone calls you something which you don’t have. Don’t go further. I want you to think. Will it be horrible or fantastic? Of course, horrible.
Then how can one call someone dis-abled? We have different names in our homes, right? Even they have. But most of the time it will not be used. People name them differently. And the names include handicapped, physically challenged, disabled, etc. The name differently-abled sounds good to me. I tell you why at the end. Differently-abled people have different abilities. The one who can’t see can see some things which we think that doesn’t exist. The one who can’t speak & hear can hear something without the help of the ears. They have their own way of doing everything.
So it is not right and no one has any right to call someone disabled just because they look and do things differently. Some words have a deep impact on everyone. It is not easy to live the life of the disabled. It is hard. We are making it even more harder by calling them disabled again and again.
Have you ever wondered how it feels to be differently-abled? We would have assumed from many movies and books. But how actually will it be like? We are good at imaginations. We all are. So now, the moment you are reading this, I want you to imagine yourself as one among them. Let’s say you have difficulties in walking. Not like scratches or fractures. It’s some serious syndrome you have from birth.
Let’s dive in. Close your eyes. You are sleeping right now. The alarm goes up. You are opening your eyes. You should not get up on your own even though you want to because you can’t. You need to wait for someone to help you up. Then that someone will help you to get to the restroom. And when you complete all that you again need to wait for that someone to help you sit in a place, to go to school or college or office whatever it is and when you reach there, there will be someone who will again help you with all that stuff. Eventually, you will reach home and the process continues until you sleep. This is the routine of every differently-abled. If you have a wheelchair or an abled body to walk with a stick, then you can do something’s on your own but not all. Difficult, right? But will it not be normal if it happens every day?
So, at first, you’ll find it difficult, then you’ll understand that there’s no other way, you’ll accept it, then you’ll get used to it and at some point, you will not feel disabled at all as it will become normal to you. Take my word, it’s not easy to create that mindset. They need to undergo a lot of traumas to accept the way they really are.
The point is, they started to see themselves as normal people. But if the Normal people are staring at them like disabled, then it will shatter their mindset of being normal, which they created after a lot of hurdles and tough times.
The more you show sympathy the more you are making them feel disabled. Sympathy can kill a person alive if you show it to those who don’t need it. You can help them. You can be that someone to that one. Nothing wrong with it. But do it as if you do it to your friends. You don’t need to be cautious. They like to be treated normally like you and me. Sympathy and empathy are two different things.
Sympathy will make you cry.
Empathy will make others smile.
There are more than 1 billion differently-abled people around the world. We all aware of difficulties they are facing in their day-to-day life from acceptability to accessibility. But many of us are not aware of how it feels to be disabled in the eyes of Normal people. Next time when you see someone like that show empathy instead of sympathy.
To be honest, being differently-abled is not difficult as long as you have that someone in your life. And trust me, I know how it feels like because I’m one among them and I love to be called differently-abled.
