Excerpts from the Life of an Angel: Chapter 1 - Living a Happy Life with a Differently-Abled Kid

Being the mother of a differently-abled child has given me a new and more hopeful perspective on our life on earth. Dennis, who is my boss, mentor and friend, has always classified the disabled folks as "differently-abled". Once I thought about that differentiation, I came to understand that the term more accurately reflected the nature of the label.

To those of us who walk, we look at others in a wheelchair as disabled. Why? Their mobility may take on the use of a wheelchair rather than legs. If our goal is the destination, why is it so important how we get there? When we encounter someone in a wheelchair who needs a few moments to navigate, we are impatient and treat them with disdain because they are handicapped and are wasting our precious time.

On the ski lift, when it stops in mid-air, we yell at the lift operator because it's cold and we're bored sitting there. We don't even notice two of the operators lifting a paraplegic on a mono-ski off the lift. Shameful, isn't it? We think that by walking, we possess the sole right to enjoy snow and the quiet beauty of coming down a mountain. And we don't even stop to commend those who have overcome tremendous obstacles with a cheerful smile.

To those of us who see with our eyes, we look at the visually impaired or blind as disabled. Why? This doesn't make sense, because they learn to use their other senses to offset the lack of sight. They listen more closely and pay attention to all those non-verbal communication cues that those of us who are constantly talking miss. Are we better people because we see? No, because what we really lack is vision.

To those of us who hear, we think of the hearing impaired or deaf as disabled. Why? They use their eyes to give them cues we miss or take for granted. They learn sign language to communicate their ideas to others. We who hear rarely accommodate them; we patronize them by shouting at them, as if raising our volume could help them hear us. We also dismiss learning sign language as something for others to do. Are they disabled because we don't want to listen to what they have to say?