Monday, December 4, 2017

Stop pathologizing Disabled Lives

Do people see how nearly everything disabled people do is shoved through a pathology and “fixing lens”

- Disabled kids can’t just scramble an egg. It’s going on IG. #LifeSkills

- disabled people don’t ride horses. It’s “equine therapy”

- disabled people don’t paint. It’s “art therapy”

- if your autistic child likes music, someone will suggest “music therapy”. (Because you can’t just listen to music when you are autistic *eyeroll*)

- a group of Disabled people can’t go to the mall without it being called a “community outing”

- autistic people can’t change their tastes without the “age appropriate” aspect being mentioned

- your child have a favorite toy? Most therapists will want to use that as currency during their interactions. Prepare to earn it back doing repetitive work while someone keeps score.

News alert - Disabled people can cook, wash a dish, shop and do a zillion other things without some type of therapy or life skill goal associated with it. Things can be taught without gross ableism being a part of it and no, not everything has to be some learning experience. A trip to the mall is usually **just** a trip to the mall. (And a lot of sensory overload but I digress)

We can swim, paint, play music and a million other things without a therapy spin to it. When NT people do these things, it’s just art/ horseback riding / swimming/ making dinner. Stop pathologizing our lives and let us have hobbies and do things without using them in a therapy aspect.

We will get along a lot better when you stop constantly seeing us as people with a list of deficits who need to be fixed, taught, corrected and robbed of real, everyday experiences.

-

-

-

*before everyone comments, I understand some disabled people love these activities. I’m saying let us decide what we do with our free time and not take the option of it being simply “an activity we like” away from us by making it goal based.

Our Autistic Family’s Approach To Therapy

 This was originally written and published in January 2016, on the Respectfully Connected blog.   Therapy is a controversial topic. I have p...