Disability-lllness Superbook Book 1. Disability Basics

Everybody has disabled people somewhere in their family tree. Lots of people are born disabled due to genetic reasons or as the result of pregnancy complications. People get injured or acquire debilitating diseases at some point in life. I've lived with both, a disabled relative and serious injuries of my own.

The thing is that the world goes on. It doesn't slow down or stop just because someone is disabled.

Your life is in your mind regardless of if you’re healthy or disabled. You always create your own life.

Life goes on a spectrum between pain and happiness. How much of this is a function of your mind?

When they told me I would have one eye for the rest of my life, I knew I had to go on as though I was lucky to have vision.

We can do so much politically and the rest we have to do on our own to fit into the world somehow in a useful, productive way to get the money we want to buy the things that will help us survive and enjoy our lives more.

The best thing I ever saw about disabilities was the 1940s movie called Shaggy Bush which was a movie about a family going through ups and downs. There was a bit in there where the mother said her daughter's disability didn't mean she was doomed. It just meant that she would still do what she felt in her spirit with her life with this extra nuisance to deal with.

There's a lot of discrimination. You can't legislate it away. The only way to solve it is to prove to prejudiced people that you can do the things you do as a job or for a career just as well or better than other people.

As a group, disabled people are the poorest category within society. The government could do more but it won't happen until disabled people of all kinds come together to form a powerful voting block capable of swaying elections like the AARP for people over 50.

There has to be some kind of major aggressive program to train disabled people and put them out into the workforce. They should get preferential treatment for all government jobs.

There are all kinds of assisted living retirement communities for seniors who can afford them. There could be living communities built especially for disabled people. We're wealthy enough as a society to do this but we choose to spend the money on warfare and all kinds of other foolishness like border guards between Canada and the United States. We're spozed to be best friends.

What is sadder, people with handicaps or the people who put them down? Many disabled people are happy by themselves until the world comes in and tells them there's something wrong with them.

The general causes of disabilities are:

Accident.

Congenital.
Disease, illness.

Environmental pollutants.

Traumatic event to mother during pregnancy.

Use of alcohol, drugs or booze during pregnancy

The term "handicapped" is defined as anyone with a physical or mental disability that substantially restricts them in one or more of the major life activities of:

Walking.
Seeing.
Hearing.
Speaking.
Working.
Learning.

There are varying degrees of disability ranging from treatable to permanent. The main ones are generally classified as:

Locomotion and mobility.

Digestive and bowel like spina bifida.

Loss of some or all of visual sight.

The inability to speak or speak properly like autism or stuttering.

Intellectual disability like learning disability or mental retadation.

Emotional disability in mental health.

Invisible disability, a disorder not readily apparent like epilepsy.

Visible disability, something like a cleft palate.

Addictions can be considered handicaps in some situations.

Many newly physically handicapped people are angry, depressed and insulted by others often unintentionally so much that they either attempt suicide or wish they were dead during the first few years after they got the disability.

Gradually over time the anger in most gives way to acceptance and self-love.