How you cope with a disability is one thing. How you decide to present or reveal your disability to others is something else. It’s important for disabled and non-disabled people alike to understand both whether and how different people with disabilities choose to identify as disabled – and why.
In a practical sense of course, disabilities impose themselves on those of us who have them, whether or not we reveal or fully accept them. But most disabled people have at least some choice in how they process them – including whether or not to identify openly as disabled. Some of us choose to make our disabilities an important part of our lives and social identity. For others, disability is something to be fought and defeated, or at most minimally tolerated, but otherwise denied and distanced …
The Pros And Cons Of Identifying As Disabled
The Pros And Cons Of Identifying As Disabled
The Pros And Cons Of Identifying As Disabled
How you cope with a disability is one thing. How you decide to present or reveal your disability to others is something else. It’s important for disabled and non-disabled people alike to understand both whether and how different people with disabilities choose to identify as disabled – and why.
In a practical sense of course, disabilities impose themselves on those of us who have them, whether or not we reveal or fully accept them. But most disabled people have at least some choice in how they process them – including whether or not to identify openly as disabled. Some of us choose to make our disabilities an important part of our lives and social identity. For others, disability is something to be fought and defeated, or at most minimally tolerated, but otherwise denied and distanced …
Continue the discussion over at Forbes.com.