#Disability

Ableism is the theater director’s favorite method: casting disabled people as the perfect scapegoat on society’s stage. It doubles as a miracle cure for both the able-bodied person’s ‘benevolence’ and ‘insensitivity,’ turning real hardship into punchlines. It not only erects physical barriers but glorifies the disdain for those who must overcome them. The more one preaches understanding and empathy, the finer the web of unintentional exclusion becomes.

Disability rights: a glittering stage prop for society to cloak its conscience with rhetoric. In reality, steps and indifference pulse as its lifeblood, while only empty decoration swirls at its core. Pleasant slogans echo as access remains defiantly locked outside. Those caught between ideal and actuality are sometimes lured into a mirage named rights.

Disorder is a device that visualizes the subtle gap between one’s expectations and reality. Often society forgets its existence, only retrieving it to hurl simultaneous pity and confusion when convenient. When a diagnosis lands in your hands, you experience a magic that instantly hides you behind a sheet of paper. To those innocently enjoying the dream of normalcy, disorders are mere nuisances to be removed. But for the individual, ‘normal’ may be nothing more than a distant fantasy ticket to a phantom home.