Confessions of a Concussed Cyclist: Are you disabled? No, I’m Jen!

December 22, 2018

Last night I was scrolling through instagram and I came across a mother that has a daughter with C.P. (Cerebral Palsy).  She put out a question to her followers that asked “what terminology do you prefer? ‘Special Needs’, ‘Disabled’, ‘Differently Abled’, etc.”

It got me thinking…

I am a special education teacher. I may not be teaching at this moment, but I still very much consider myself a teacher.  My education and my career revolved around students with disabilities. I have always used the term “Special Needs” when referring to what I do (“I work with students with special needs”) or child first statements (i.e. a boy with autism, a girl with hearing impairments) when talking about a specific child.   

Now, in a weird twist of fate, according to the definition, I am considered “disabled” and I HATE it!  I want to cry everytime a letter arrives from some organization that says “you are disabled” or “you have been found to be permanently disabled”.  I think to myself, “No, I’m Jen” or if absolutely necessary “I am Jen, the woman with a brain injury”.

I NEVER called my kids disabled and I don’t like being referred to as such.  I cannot speak for others; perhaps their skin does not crawl the way mine does when I hear “you are disabled”.  According to Webster’s dictionary, the word disabled is defined as “ impaired or limited by a physical, mental, cognitive, or developmental condition; incapacitated by illness or injury”.  Unfortunately, too often when someone hears the word “disabled” they think that someone is “broken” or considered “not good enough”.

Too bad I don’t get letters from organizations that say “sorry your brain got rattled after a SUV hit you” versus “you are permanently disabled”.