tweet by kat @graphickat:
When people say “they never use disability as an excuse” it makes me furious.
Stating my reality is not an excuse. My body has physical limitations that aren’t negotiable.
When I tell you I can’t do something, it’s not an excuse. It’s not a matter of positivity. It’s truth.
Their point was to try and invaludate OP.
Your optimistic interpretation of it, apart from the “grit” part, because that’s a judgment you can’t possibly make, is the right way to look at it, which if that person did, they wouldn’t have made the comment they did.
No that wasn’t my point. My point is that is the type of thing that some people who disagree might say. Such as spencer West, who I believe is the guy who I saw speak at a conference. But there are too many in google results to be sure which one it was. And it might have been kilamanjaro! Not everest. I saw him speak almost 20 years ago so the name and details grow fuzzy.
The point is, for someone with a disadvantage, giving up is not the best medicine.
What you see as “giving up” might be someone who has tried a million times only to realize they aren’t capable of doing something. So instead of constantly hurting yourself and getting discouraged from not being able to do the task, you realize that is a boundary and something you just can’t do.
So when someone comes around, sees you “giving up” on something and telling you the disabled man climbing Everest story, all that does is bring all those horrible feelings back up but now with judgement from someone else.