disappointed. disinterested. disengaged. distrust. discarded. disgrace.
the words above all have a negative connotation: they evoke bad feelings & emotions—some more than others—but perhaps i have omitted the worst. perhaps you don't think it's the worst. but then again, you're probably not disabled.
what does that word mean to you? i imagine it's either interchangeable for sympathy &/or empathy, right? either a turn of the head or a knowing glance. a contest to distinguish between the scrounger or the sufferer.
it is just a prefix, i hear you say. but does that justify alienation? the letters mean nothing on their own, but we as humans add weight to them.
perhaps i am not being clear here. what i mean is, whether people self-identify as disabled or whether that label is stuck upon them, from that moment on, they are disposable. disfigured. bad. bad. bad. they are a stereotype, a predefined definition. a statistic. an anomaly. an excuse to be given. people shy away from the word, cringe at it, make a big deal about discussing it. they don't like to hear about it, because of course disability wouldn't exist in a perfect world.
these are not my views, & perhaps not yours, but the evidence swings the other way: history has a habit of repeating itself in terms of oppression against minorities. disabled individuals—thought to be subhuman were targeted in the holocaust & are targeted in things like genetic cleansing, even today. foetuses are being aborted at the mere suggestion of some sort of impairment.
yes, having a disability is hard. but that does not mean that abled people should make it harder for us to deal with and find ourselves in this strange world of feelings & emotions & an affiliation towards categories & labels. our minds are stronger than the eyes that look down on us. please let us portray that.
i am disinterested in what you think of me, dissatisfied with what you see me to be. i am disabled, yes—but that does not mean i can be discounted or discredited. all that means is that i am differently abled—& that really is not as bad as you believe.