<p>I have a self plunge assignment for an RA class I’m taking. Basically I select a part of my identity and explore it. (ie. Race, religion, sexual orientation) And I’m exploring my abilities. I’m an able bodied individual but I want self plunge into an identity of being physically handicapped, and borrow my friend’s old crutches… cuz i don’t know where i would find a wheelchair. Anyway, when I use the crutches, I feel like i’m pretending that I had a bad fall. But what is it like to be born/to have the genes that cause the loss of in the use of your limbs, like polio, for a college student?</p>
<p>or can you imagine yourself being handicapped? and what would go through your mind throughout the day as you go to class, eat lunch, go to work, hang out with friends.</p>
<p>Also, when my friend had an accident and needed crutches, she actually didn’t use them cuz it was so strenuous to always use them. but if you had the gene, you can’t just say, no i refuse to use these mobile instruments.</p>
<p>Maybe you could come up with some more specific questions. I am disabled but this is such a broad question I am not even really sure how to respond. I am not sure if you CAN “self-plunge” into being disabled-- there are some aspects of a mobility impairment you can mimic, but there are many you could never begin to experience personally because you won’t face the discrimination that someone who is ACTUALLY disabled faces. People look at you and think you’re just injured or doing a project since they know you’re not disabled, the prejudgments that exist for disabled people-- which for me is the most difficult part-- is not something you would ever face at your school. And there are so many things you take for granted. Like not having to worry when you’re assigned to a dorm whether or not there is an elevator. Or how you will get to class if the elevator in an academic building is broken down. Or when you have an invisible disability like me, all the ****ing and moaning people do about you because they think youre just being lazy or faking. Or a few weeks ago, I saw someone in a chair wheeling down the side of the road because a bus let them off on a curb and even though the snow was shoveled off the sidewalks, none of the ramps up to the sidewalk were cleared and they couldnt get over onto the sidewalk-- and no one stopped to help. It’s not like you sit around all day and think about your disability, your day to day thoughts are just the same as anyone elses, but from time to time something so simple like that sneaks up on you and you have to deal with it.</p>
<p>It’s not REALLY the same but I broke my wrist and then the next weekend I injured my other wrist (tore some connective tissue, no serious damage but it hurt a LOT more than my broken one) so I had a cast to my elbow on one arm and a splint to my shoulder on the other. I could do almost nothing. If my wrist injury had been more permanent I would have probably needed to come home from school for a while or gotten some form of care - I was basically incapable of basic tasks like dressing (took me 45 minutes to get my shirt off), showering was essentially impossible (washed my hair in the sink and took sponge baths), I couldn’t write and could hardly type, etc. I couldn’t even touch my face with my right hand. It was extremely, extremely difficult. Luckily in a week or so I switched to a wrist and elbow brace so I had more motion and could take it off to shower.</p>
<p>It’s not really the same as your situation I suppose but it got me to be so grateful for just the simple ability to move. Even now I’m in my wrist cast and I cannot wait until it comes off, although having a shoulder splint has made me really comfortable using my casted hand.</p>
<p>^That’s a good point, which made me think of another thing people take for granted-- being able to do basic, simple tasks without having to ask for help. Thankfully there are a LOT of adaptive technologies out there that make this a lot better than it ever used to be, but it can be pretty degrading to have to ask for help all the time. And if you want to go someplace alone, or move to another city from your family or friends to take a new job or something, you have to ask yourself, “who will be there if I need help?” Some people with disabilities never get to experience what it’s like to be truly independent. I am fully capable of living on my own in almost every way, but there are some very simple, basic, bs tasks that I still can’t quite manage on my own and until I do I am stuck in a state that holds virtually no hope of employment for me, because I’d have no one to help me if I moved. </p>
<p>And then there’s the stigma. I don’t even know where to start on that one. People assuming you must be intellectually inferior if you have any kind of disability–even physical, constant accusations of faking, and heaven forbid you ever have to apply for disability from the government-- everyone and their dog will accuse you of being a lazy fraud on a regular basis. </p>
<p>I have a friend who has a service dog to help her with a mobility impairment, the dog braces for her and can lift objects for her since she can’t bend down, and people come up to her in the store and sneak up to try and pet the dog, and if she asks them not to they say, “see! I was just testing you! You’re not really blind, faker!” Or random people will come up to her and say, “Well obviously you’re not blind, so what’s wrong with you?” like her personal medical situation is any of their business.</p>
<p>There is really a constant onslaught of negativity from the “abled” world. Like I said, most of the time you don’t think about it, but then there’s that occasional slap in the face.</p>
<p>I have a friend who has a service dog to help her with a mobility impairment, the dog braces for her and can lift objects for her since she can’t bend down, and people come up to her in the store and sneak up to try and pet the dog, and if she asks them not to they say, “see! I was just testing you! You’re not really blind, faker!” Or random people will come up to her and say, “Well obviously you’re not blind, so what’s wrong with you?” like her personal medical situation is any of their business.</p>
<p>My aunt also has a service dog, though she is legally blind (but not completely blind) due to a car accident. She faces this problem too. People are always trying to sneak and pet the dog (and her harness has a very big, obvious “Do NOT pet me, I’m working” sign on it). And the strange looks she gets when she holds something close to her eyes so that she can distinguish what it is exactly is so degrading (people roll their eyes, some people have actually asked her if she can see enough to find something why she needs a seeing eye dog)! But her dog has made a world of difference for her… She can now go shopping alone (well, without another person at least) without worrying if something is laying in an aisle that she might trip over, or if she’s coming up on a curb, so those people can shove it as far as I’m concerned. Additionally, her daughter is autistic and the dog is very good at looking out for her (she was not “trained” to do so, but has picked it up)… I don’t even want to get into the dirty looks people give her daughter when they’re in public (she screams a lot and speaks by asking a question and answering herself). It’s sickening to see this type of behavior from the same society that preaches for “human rights” for everything from a dog to a cotton plant (not that I’m against these things, just saying…)</p>