Cailyn was working on her media project over the week-end. Her topic is: “how perceived / real disabilities have always inspired / continue to inspire contrasting reactions”. She didn’t pick this topic out of a hat, it is a topic she crafted. When I asked her what her goal was for this topic, she said she wanted to help eliminate the unfair, negative bias towards people who are noticeably disabled, because this bias leads to the assumption that they are “lesser” in some way or another. She said she just wanted all people to be viewed as equals.
This topic is obviously very personal. I was both surprised and proud of her for choosing it. I tell anyone who hasn’t personally met Cailyn that they would never be able to tell, by looking at her, either what she’s gone through or what deficits she faces as a result of her journey. Regardless, we have had almost 12 years of learning how Cailyn’s deficits impact her life and challenge her.
Her “disabilities” don’t define her but I’ve learned over the last couple of years that she seems to accept ‘disabled’ as one of the many adjectives that can be used when describing her. If her descriptive adjectives were positioned on stage, this particular adjective would be part of the chorus, not one of the leading actors. I wonder, though, if she would still have this perspective if her deficits were more obvious to the people she encounters, because their reactions would likely be different – which could negatively change her opinion of herself.
In her presentation, Cailyn shares examples of acceptance and rejection of people with disabilities across time and culture. Unfortunately, the number of examples of acceptance are totally overwhelmed by the number of examples of rejection. All of her research inspired me to remark that every single human being has both strengths and weaknesses. The rejection of people with disabilities is facilitated by our inability to remember this! The degree to which someone is viewed as disabled is inversely related to the degree to which their strengths are obvious. Just because you can’t see something, doesn’t mean it ain’t there!
When I was facilitating organizational teams, I was confident that our success was dependent on my ability to incorporate every participant’s ideas. Anyone who has been on a team knows that some people on the team speak up, and some don’t (meaning that there are stronger voices and weaker voices)… unequivocally, if I could get everyone to participate, we would meet or exceed expectations. The best solutions are made from respecting the most perspectives. The best world is made when we remember / acknowledge that everyone brings something special to the table!
Here’s to Cailyn changing her world!!