Quotes About Disability

France actually had the first ever pension schemes: the Invalides, a hostel built by Louis XIV and his prime minister, Jean-Baptiste Colbert (1619–83), for disabled soldiers.

This 'mantra' of race, class, and gender has now led to a new and to some extent almost separate field of research under the umbrella term of 'intersectionality' studies, which includes within its research framework an understanding that age, disability, and citizenship also have differential impacts on majority and minority communities and individuals.

This may feel true for every era, but I believe I am living in a time where disabled people are more visible than ever before. And yet while representation is exciting and important, it is not enough. I want and expect more. We all should expect more. We all deserve more.

Jessie Lorenz talked with her friend Herb Levine about his involvement in the 1977 504 sit-ins—the longest nonviolent occupation of a federal building. Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 was a federal law that outlawed discrimination based on disability in any program or activity receiving federal funding.

Even the notion of "quality of life" as a measurable standard is based on assumptions that a "good" healthy life is one without disability, pain, and suffering. I live with all three intimately, and I feel more vital than ever at this point in time because of my experiences and relationships. Vulnerable "high-risk" people are some of the strongest, most interdependent, and most resilient people around.

E]ligibility for disability and other benefits should depend more on the person't actual level of functional impairment, less on whether or not he has a psychiatric diagnosis.

I think that everyone has something about themselves that they feel is their weakness... their 'disability.' And I'm certain we all have one, because I think of a disability as being anything which undermines our belief and confidence in our own abilities.

One of the things polio does is it takes away your energy. They don't know very much about it. They should be a lot more aware of what polio is.

Stop ignoring disabled people, we make up 22 per cent of the population. We're here and we're worth listening to.

If you support diversity and think shows should give a portrayal of what America truly looks like, then performers with disabilities must be included in that equation...People have been very good at being politically correct.

As I get older and mature and see the world, I think it's really rewarding to have people take inspiration - I hate the 'I' word - but I think a lot of disabled people really thank me for putting disability out there in a positive way.

So, for example, if a child is labeled as having a learning disability, it has very concrete consequences for the kinds of services and potentially accommodations that child will get.

I worry that when educational counselors and teachers call in families with concerns about a child having a learning disability, we aren't always looking at the complete picture.

For me, disability is a physical experience, but it's also a cultural experience and a social experience, and for me, the word 'crip' is the one that best encapsulated all of that.

When you're growing up with a learning disability, it shoots your confidence and belief in what you can accomplish academically; it really damages it.

Families with disabled children are praying for their kids to die before them because they have no support systems. They are very scared about who will take care of their kids and how their kids will have a dignified life after they die.

Zimmerman, G. & Zebehazy, K. (2011). Blindness and low vision. In J. Kauffman & D. Hallahan (Eds.), Handbook of special education (pp. 247–261). New York, NY: Routledge.

The first and most obvious understanding of education comes from the fact that anyone who can not tell Reason from rubbish is not yet in a condition to know that he can not tell Reason from rubbish, a disability, which, you would suppose, can hardly be one of those put forth as education. But it is.

clogged with all kinds of muck and wax and bits of chewing gum and dead flies and stuff like that. This made him deaf. 'SPEAK LOUDER,' he said to Bunce

What a relief it was to discover that I wasnt realy an idiot! I simply had a learning disability.

The goal of NIH research is to acquire new knowledge to help prevent, detect, diagnose, and treat disease and disability, from the rarest genetic disorder to the common cold.

I'd think learning to play the guitar would be very confusing for sighted people

As a child, I was called stupid and lazy. On the SAT I got 159 out of 800 in math. My parents had no idea that I had a learning disability.

I guess through my learning disability, through dyslexia, I've always been a visual learner - I take in everything through my eyes.