It's not a disability!!

Many people have the wrong idea about disability. They are not well informed about what disability is about. They get the wrong assumptions about people. As we have mentioned in class when we talk about disabled people we think of helpless people, who are not able to function the same way as the rest of the people that have temporarily able bodies. The truth is that we have so much to learn from all these people. It even makes me think that the people who have the disability it’s us (the people with temporarily able bodies) and not them. I accept that I have learned so much throughout the quarter, and I’ve also learned many things about disability from these last weeks.

Last year I took sign language classes and since the beginning of my education here at Shoreline, they have been my favorite classes. I learned that being deaf is not a disability, but a whole different culture. Just like Hispanic culture, or any other culture we have also the Deaf Culture and there is so much we could learn from each other, but we have the wrong assumptions about people. Probably we could say that some people put deaf people under the obsessive avenger category. They see deaf people as violent, monstrous, and scary. Other put them under the sweet innocent category. They see them as dependent and dump. Some even are afraid to get too close to them, as if deafness could be contagious. This ASL class really opened my mind. I learned to respect Deaf Culture, to admire it and even it gave me the feeling of be part of it. I even consider deaf people smarter than the rest. The way they communicate it’s just impressive. They’re full of expressions and full of life.

I want to end with this video that a friend sent me to my e-mail some time ago. I have to admit that it really touched me, I cried a lot and the same time it opened my eyes. A lesson that I learned from watching this is that you are what you believe, so always think positive about yourself and never let other people put you down. You can find the video in youtube. The video is like a short movie (reflexion) called The Butterfly Circus. The story focuses on Will the main character. Will has no limbs and he works for a circus, but the circus’ show consists of making fun of disabled people or in other words they call it “weird or abnormal” people. Will has heard good things about The Butterfly Circus so he moves with them. Soon, again he feels like he’s worthless and helpless and that with no limbs he cannot do anything. Then he discovers that he is not the only one that has suffered. All the actors that work for The Butterfly Circus come from different backgrounds. Some women were sexually abused, others had alcohol problems, others were homeless, etc, but they left that life and decided to unite and start bringing happiness and smiles to others people’s lives by joining the circus. This teaches us that we should never give up. Another interesting thing that I noticed was how the owner of The Butterfly Circus is a Hispanic guy (Mendez), and how people from all different backgrounds are united in the movie (blacks, whites, and hispanics). At the end of the movie we see how Will becomes famous and he discovers all the talents he has, and if Will can do that we can do it too. Will has not a disability. On the contrary he has the ability to do so many things like the rest of us and even does things that not even us are able to do.

Please watch both parts!!