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Being Singled Out for Your Disability
We’ve all come across people who come up to us and single us out because we’re disabled. They either talk to us like we’re incapable of doing anything ourselves, or they ask if they can heal us right on the spot. One time I was at a movie with friends, and a couple guys came up to pray for me right as the trailers started. It was awkward trying to get them to leave. My favorite though was one time at church, an usher saw me, put his hand on my shoulder and said in a loud voice “LET ME KNOW IF YOU NEED ANYTHING!” I turned to my brother afterwards and said, “hey, apparently I’m blind and deaf too.”
Fortunately these encounters are rare for me, but they’re annoying when they do happen. People like this think they’re being nice, when really they’re being ignorant. They assume that just because we have a disability that we’re miserable and constantly suffering. Granted, there are people who do suffer more than others, but a wheelchair isn’t an automatic indication of that. I’ve had SMA my entire life, and my life is great. It’s just irritating when I’m singled out by strangers and they assume I’m some angelic inspiration. I wrote about this exact topic a while ago: https://smanewstoday.com/2017/06/13/sma-i-hate-it-when-people-call-me-an-inspiration/?amp.
What do you do in these kinds of situations? Do you have any stories you want to share?
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