Special Treatment vs Consideration

I am not my disability. I don't want special treatment.  Special treatment is degrading. Special treatment is when you tiptoe around the feelings of someone who has bipolar because you don't want them to get upset. Special treatment is when you let somebody with anxiety live in a little bubble because you're afraid they're going to panic. Special treatment is when you stick a kid with ADHD into a low class despite the fact they did fine in a higher class. Special treatment is when you put low expectations on someone with autism and treat them like they'll never succeed. Special treatment makes us people with disability feel like we're less and we are not less. Once we are able to cope with and understand our disabilities we are capable of what most other people are capable of sometimes we are even more capable.

I am not my disability but it is still a real part of me. I only want consideration. Consideration is when you consider the fact that somebody with bipolar is going to be more sensitive. Don't tiptoe around they're feelings and when they are upset try to understand why they feel that way. Consideration is when you understand that somebody with anxiety may not like crowds. So instead of keeping them in a bubble you try to lessen how many crowds they go in. Consideration is when you realize someone with ADHD isn't always going to be able to focus but that does not mean they can't understand. Consideration is when you realize that someone with autism may need you to go at a slower rate than others. We all learn differently just because a person needs to go slow that doesn't mean they'll never "get there" (whatever that means).  Consideration is very different then special treatment because we don't need people to treat us like we are a problem that needs to be fixed. We definitely do no need to be treated like a problem. Do not get mad at us when we do things that aren't "normal". We only need people to be considerate of us.

We are people just like everybody else. We don't deserve to be degraded, we don't deserve to feel like we're less and we definitely don't deserve to be told it's our fault. It is not our fault that we weren't born "normal" it is not our fault if we went through trauma. It's okay that we are mentally disabled it does not define us. Only we can define ourselves. We do not need to define ourselves for anybody but ourselves. So instead of generalizing us and treating us like we are some subset of humans let us define who we are. Watch and you'll see we may even be more capable than you think.

Oh and when somebody who is disabled states that they are disabled that is not them playing victim. That is simply them stating a part of who they are. It is no different than someone saying they are shy or that they are outgoing. We should not have to hide this part of us it is perfectly okay for us to recognize it. What is not okay is when we let it define us because it is not us it is only a part of us.