“You don’t sound disabled,” the voice on the other end of the phone said, suspiciously, “are you sure you need these accommodations?”
I don’t sound disabled.
That’s what I was told.
And what exactly does “disabled” sound like? I don’t know for certain but I know that whatever it sounds like, it doesn’t sound like me.
Do people think when they speak about disability? Do they realize how offensive their words are? I wonder and I wonder more if it matters to them at all.
I was in a position of needing accommodation. I didn’t blow up on the phone because I needed what I needed and I didn’t want to piss off the person who could give it to me. She was the gate keeper to my successful accommodation so I simply let it go.
Sorry.
I don’t fight every fight.
I capitulate when I am in the powerless position that need places me.
Do people who are employed in disability services begin to get a sense of the power they hold in their hands? Does it corrupt them? Does it make them mean? Do they begin to believe that the resources that they manage, which weren’t created by them and weren’t paid for by them, are theirs anyway? Do they think they can say whatever they want and be suspicious of every person requesting service?
I didn’t “sound disabled” so I must have been scamming, I must have been trying to access what isn’t rightfully mine. That’s what we do us fake disabled people who don’t even both to sound disabled.
Well hear this: Disabled doesn’t have a sound you fartwit!
