Disability Is Natural Books and Media

Do you know what it’s like to feel wrong 24-hours a day? Do you know what

it’s like to be disapproved of, not only for what you do and say and think, but for who you are? Joyce Rebeta-Burditt

“Wrong”—the word is routinely used about people with disabilities. Listen as physicians and parents talk about when they first realized “something was wrong” with a child. Educators or service providers are told about a new student or “client,” and then ask, “What’s wrong with him?” And a young girl sees a person with a visible disability in the mall, tugs at her mother’s hand, and says, “What’s wrong with him?”

 “Wrong” is a word that rolls off our tongues when our brains aren’t engaged.  Using the word in the ways described may have originated in the medical field. A pain in your body, for example, sends you to the doctor so he can fix what’s “wrong.” And when applied to people with developmental disabilities, this word can lead parents, educators, and medical/human services personnel to take action: doing everything possible to make a person “right,” through therapies, interventions, and more. But the word and the actions it provokes can shred the souls of the people so described, and lead to segregation, devaluation, and more.

The use of “wrong” as a descriptor for people with developmental disabilities is just not right!  Many adults have said they’ve never felt “good enough”​ . . . Click here to continue.

"Wrong" is Not Right!

 DISABILITY IS NATURAL!

New Ways of Thinking and Revolutionary Common Sense