Do you consider yourself to be disabled?
Well, if you have MS, you are disabled, according to The Government.
I’m not sure how I feel about this term.
What is disabled anyway? Unable to do what others can? Are we disabled by our own limitations or by society and our environment?
On the flip-side,what does healthy mean? Do you know a healthy person? I’m not sure I do and interestingly, a new study by the University of Washington throws up some truly gobsmacking results.
An analysis of 188 countries revealed that just 4.3% of the population have no health problems. 4.3%. Further, a third of the world’s population – 2.3 billion people – has at least five ailments.
Who’s disabled now?
If 95.7% of the population have at least one ‘disability’, even with my maths, it pretty much means we’re all in the same boat. We are a ‘disabled’ society.
In a way, I feel comfortable having a set-in-stone diagnosis. My random symptoms have been gathered under one umbrella, MS. There is legislation in place to ‘protect’ my rights. All well and good until an employer chooses to ignore them and bully you out of your workplace. I speak from experience.
Funnily enough, one of the people who took great pleasure in sacking me for my MS actually took many, many more sick days than I ever did (and unlike me, she had paid sick leave). So who’s the disabled one? She was off work so often, it was a surprise to see her in the office.
Why are those of us with a Confirmed Diagnosis of Something or Other lumped together into a group, best dealt with by suspicion, fear and enmity? Even though I worked just as hard/harder than anyone else, I became someone to be viewed with distrust.
If unhealthy (gah, what a term) people are the majority, where have we gone wrong as a society?
Years ago, I used to work in a tremendously busy office. So-and-so had a special cushion for her chair as she had backache. Another person had migraines and had to take frequent screen-breaks. Someone else had diabetes. A typical office then.
Perhaps it is time to recognise that as a society, we all deal with some pain or ailment on a daily basis and it is our duty to protect and nurture each other. We’re only human after all.
And the irony?
The job I was unceremoniously sacked from was within a care company, specialising in helping ‘disabled’ people to retain their independence.
You couldn’t make it up …
Amazing they sacked you! Why weren’t you made a consultant?
I know! As soon as I raised the possibility of MS, they waged a war of hate against me. We were only 4 in the office.
Sadly, they are still in business, promoting empty values of aiding disabled people to stay in their homes. Lol.
But in my view, if they couldn’t even do that in their office, they have no chance of promoting it in their business.
Bx
This question falls under love or in love, I think the ladder tells the tale. physical/mental there is/are people who cannot see (physically) but are mentally potent…get the idea? I have ms; just another anomaly in my life. I can not walk nor skate but can interact in different ways. All the numbers/percentages are bereft of reality…..what’s real? The whole point is, is how you see life and what it can offer you!And then you have really lazy people who do not deserve to be care givers, bunch of people taking the easy way or should i say people that do not belong on this earth. Anger sets in, heheh.
Very true.
Percentages mask the reality, and in my view, it is a reality our Government needs to address.
x
This is powerful…thought provoking and mind-numbing at the same time.
I was stunned at the statistics! Almost turns our perceived world upside down?
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