Beyond the Label: Seeing Ability in Disability

DISABILITY

Ashlesha Misra

4/10/20252 min read

a man sitting in a wheel chair in a park
a man sitting in a wheel chair in a park

Beyond the Label: Seeing Ability in Disability

Ashlesha Misra

07 April 2025

Maduravoyal, Chennai

To be born a human, yet so different.

To be born to soar the sky, yet forced to be caged inside.

To be born to live, yet not be able to live to the fullest.

Every second prolonged, a pain that persists

A difference that cannot be hidden,

A disability that cannot be withheld.

Such is the life of people who are born special, God's gift in a different way. What might appear to us as mundane things might be something out of reach for them or snatched away. That is not to say that people who are disable cannot find happiness or be fulfilled in life. But sometimes the constant stares, the hushed whispers, the silent pointing and the snide remarks passed can get to the strongest of us. They push on our shields, ram them down with their words and crumble our resolve like a castle of sand. Try and try as we might the sand will somehow always slip through just like those harsh words do.

Before calling a person disabled do, we even stop and wonder for a second, why are they disabled? How is it that they are not the same as us? How is it that we find it so simple to call another person such? Do you not see that the child you called mentally disabled is not at fault because his chromosomes decided to play? Or that young man down the street who helped you cross lost his hand fighting for a war so, you know peace. Or perhaps that old man you call senile, is unable to help himself and weeps the loss of his child, the loss of everyone he knows as they fade from his memories from the inside. That beautiful girl with a smile so bright, hiding away all her tears because she can't participate in that race, with the perpetual crutches she . That sweet child who knows no man in this world, abandoned for his cells, refused to form a limb.

We so easily call a person disabled, yet never stop to think, aren't they just differently abled? Those who can't see, can still hear. Those who can't hear can still speak. Those who can't speak,can see. Yet, we people with all our senses act out the most. We close our eyes to the truth, we hear only what we want to, and we say without even thinking of how others might be affected.

I would like to end with a quote by Yvonne Pierre:- ‘When you focus on someone’s disability, you lose focus on their abilities, beauty and uniqueness.’

I have unwavering esteem for Humanity@2047, e-platform that granted me this opportunity to jot down my voice for my differently abled mates who are specimen of humanity, those who have unleashed potential and significant talents to develop  the existing scenario of our society as well.

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