The Hero Complex

            Being a new disability advocate, I find myself continually plugged into various publications. One publication I get news from is the American Association of People with Disabilities. Every week they put out a handy newsletter entitled Disability Weekly.

In a recent issue in a segment called In the News, they had a story about a mom who wrote a somewhat controversial piece. Her piece was entitled My Child with a Disability is not My Hero. As the title suggests, Miss Sarah Sweatt Orsborn asserts that disabled people but disabled children are not heroes. At first glance, even I, the non-politically correct writer, that I was taken aback. However, after looking further into Miss Orsborn's premise, I have to say I agree with her.

The premise of the article is quite simple. Orsborn suggests that the term can be more harmful than positive.  From my perspective, as a disabled person, I cannot help but agree. Every time I hear  "Oh, you're so amazing," or something of the like, I cringe. This occurs even when I listen to it from my own family. How can I be fantastic for doing such everyday tasks such as getting up in the morning and going to school? Every time someone comments on these lines, I feel like it diminishes me as a person.

I am not saying that complimenting someone for his or her accomplishments is a negative thing. I am realistic and understand that we all have egos that need a little inflating now and then. The point that Miss Orsborn and I are trying to make is that complementing somebody is fine but merely complimenting them because of the obstacles they face diminishes their self-worth and the work they have accomplished. Let me put it another way; it is like saying that we did not expect you to set the bar so high for yourself because you have this infliction. That not only causes a problem individually, but it results in a group problem.

What is that group problem? Disabled people as a whole have always expected less of themselves because society, in general, expects less of them. If we begin this second-class citizen in the doctor nation at an early age, it is no wonder disabled people set the bar so low for them.  I am a 27-year-old person with cerebral palsy who just graduated with my master's in education. However, I did not graduate with teacher certification, even though I had a 4.0 cumulative grade point average in the program. So why am I not a certified teacher, one may ask?

Simply put, I listened to society when they set the bar so low for me. Some at my school thought it was so amazing that I was getting my masters, but they saw me as too disabled to teach in a classroom. Even though it was not said directly, this was an example of the hero complex. It's so amazing that I got so far; they did not expect me to go any further and were unwilling to invest in me to help me do so. I should have done not settle for such low standards, but I did, and I have learned from it. It has helped me develop my voice as a disability advocate. It has also taught me that as good intentioned as parents are, or even family members are when they say to a disabled child, look how much you have accomplished with what you have had to go through, this has to stop.

Based on their accomplishment, judge their achievement, don't put a star beside it with a little footnote that said he or she had a disability too. Changes in culture and society do not start in Washington in the political arena. They begin with everyday people. If disabled people and those who support them want to change the way disability is perceived in this country, we have to start with ourselves. It is time that disabled people's expectations are just as high as everyone else's because we may have visible or not visible obstacles, but that doesn't make us any more or less of a person. 

Hey, Taxi!

Today an old industry comes into the 21^st century. New York City is one of the busiest cities in the world. It is the center of commerce and art mecca, and it often represents cultures from many parts of the world. Although New York is a place of change, one group that was not usually able to participate in the shift may today finally be able to get their wheel in the door.

As the below article states, from the New York Times, by way of the AAPD, Thursday, a landmark case was settled in New York court, allowing the disabled access to the taxi industry. While this may seem like something small, it is an excellent step in disability equality. With access to taxis now, the quiet disabled population will have easier access to a city that the world pays attention to regularly.

 

City Agrees on Access to Taxis for Disabled

By BENJAMIN WEISER and MATT FLEGENHEIMER

        

Ending years of acrimony, New York City has agreed to settle a significant class-action lawsuit and adopt regulations requiring that half of the city’s more than 13,000 yellow cabs be accessible to people with disabilities within six years, a person involved in the negotiations said on Thursday night.

 

The deal calls for half of all new medallion taxis put into service in any given year to be wheelchair accessible until the goal of 50 percent of the city’s fleet is reached, the person said.

The lawsuit filed in 2011 charged that the city, with only a fraction of its medallion taxis accessible to wheelchair users, violated the federal Americans With Disabilities Act.

Documents related to the settlement are expected to be filed on Friday morning in United States District Court in Manhattan. Judge George B. Daniels, who has been overseeing the case, will eventually have to approve any agreement. The deal is expected to be announced formally on Friday morning at a news conference attended by city officials and disability advocates.