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I very rarely take much notice of stuff on facebook to be honest.  But the following status caught my eye and keeps making me think:

"makes me mad, the neighbour is claiming disability allowance off the gov, coz she has a bad back, gets a brand new car off them for free ....yet shes been outside cleaning the car and hoovering it out for the last past hour!!! does she know what being disabled means lol"

Now, I do know or know of people who take the biscuit and get things they perhaps shouldn’t be entitled too.  I also know I have been guilty, myself, of judging others and their impairments in the past.  I’d like to meet someone who claims they never have, not even fleetingly.  However, aside from this person’s obvious, and public, judgement of her neighbour.  Something else wacked me in the face when reading this:

“does she know what being disabled means??”

Ok, so, I am disabled, have been from birth… and I’m pretty sure no body who meets me could question that fact.  In a way I’m lucky, because there is nothing hidden about my impairment. Well, aside from perhaps the pain I feel sometimes.  However, as we all know, my being disabled does not mean I sit at home all day taking it easy.  It does not mean I couldn’t clean my car if I wanted to (i really must do that soon).  If I wanted to I could walk round all day, but it would hurt too much and kill me for the next week.  Therefore, I use a wheelchair for longer distances because it saves time, energy and saves me being in so much pain afterwards.

I was getting my wheelchair out my car yesterday, and one of my lovely neighbours came up to me and said “you know Fran, you put a lot of people to shame with what you do everyday!”  I laughed and said something about just needing to get on with what you have.  He wasn’t judging me or being funny about my impairment, he was genuinely saying “yeah you are disabled but it doesn’t stop you”. 

So, what does being disabled mean? I know what it means to me, and, for the most part, I am unique because I see it as a positive attribute to my life.  But I am fascinated, what does being disabled mean to the person quoted above?  What does it mean to other disabled people? Or to the general public?

If people’s impairments are questioned (rightly or wrongly) because they spend an hour of their time cleaning the car,  what does this mean?
 


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