3.4 Disability equality
We are all very quick to talk about support and help available to those with a disability,
So what about me then please? Do not brush me off with an attempt of false civility.
Smiling at someone and acknowledging that this is a problem does not happen to solve it,
You may have to lift a finger, engage a brain cell, maybe show compassion and not a poor attempt at wit.
The disabled too deserve to be treated with some dignity and maybe just a little bit of humility.
“Oh just ignore him. I am sure with a little time he will just go away and simply calm down”.
I am sorry but I did not know that that was the magical cure to avoid having a meltdown.
It would never be my intent to disrupt your routines and your way of getting through your day,
So please make no attempt to belittle my disability, for ultimately it is me who is left the price to pay.
It will just be me that is left, stuck, nowhere to turn, feeling lost, hapless and like a wasted clown.
The problem I face flags on your system with an auto generated priority rating considered low,
Unimportant to your teams, making the bottom of the list, however it is me who is dealt a knockout blow.
Trust me when I say that I wish that this problem had no impact and definitely no hold over me,
Which makes it even more frustrating that through your ignorance this problem you choose not to see.
I genuinely yearn to be able to take a step back, let it bother me not and instead to go with the flow.
Disability equality is a choice for you. However, being disabled is not a choice I can freely make,
Would I give up anything to stop being disabled and adjust to your ways to stop the hurt and heartache?
No, absolutely not. For my disability has shaped who I am today and what it means to be me,
I do not want to change or to lose myself, I am me, this is me and forever this way shall I always be.
Take a moment and simply do something, make a change and do what is right for heaven's sake!
I wish I could scoop up the ignorance of the world and take it to the hammer in order to make it shatter,
Rather than to constantly be knocked back with my heart and feelings to take a blow and a batter.
I ask not to be superior, nor do I ask to be anything other than accepted and ask simply for equality,
Disability equality is not asking for the insane or the impossible, but simply to enhance my life quality.
Here is a little known fact, it may startle you, but I assure you that it is very much true. I matter.
***
Jamie Scott Watkinson-Harvey
So what about me then please? Do not brush me off with an attempt of false civility.
Smiling at someone and acknowledging that this is a problem does not happen to solve it,
You may have to lift a finger, engage a brain cell, maybe show compassion and not a poor attempt at wit.
The disabled too deserve to be treated with some dignity and maybe just a little bit of humility.
“Oh just ignore him. I am sure with a little time he will just go away and simply calm down”.
I am sorry but I did not know that that was the magical cure to avoid having a meltdown.
It would never be my intent to disrupt your routines and your way of getting through your day,
So please make no attempt to belittle my disability, for ultimately it is me who is left the price to pay.
It will just be me that is left, stuck, nowhere to turn, feeling lost, hapless and like a wasted clown.
The problem I face flags on your system with an auto generated priority rating considered low,
Unimportant to your teams, making the bottom of the list, however it is me who is dealt a knockout blow.
Trust me when I say that I wish that this problem had no impact and definitely no hold over me,
Which makes it even more frustrating that through your ignorance this problem you choose not to see.
I genuinely yearn to be able to take a step back, let it bother me not and instead to go with the flow.
Disability equality is a choice for you. However, being disabled is not a choice I can freely make,
Would I give up anything to stop being disabled and adjust to your ways to stop the hurt and heartache?
No, absolutely not. For my disability has shaped who I am today and what it means to be me,
I do not want to change or to lose myself, I am me, this is me and forever this way shall I always be.
Take a moment and simply do something, make a change and do what is right for heaven's sake!
I wish I could scoop up the ignorance of the world and take it to the hammer in order to make it shatter,
Rather than to constantly be knocked back with my heart and feelings to take a blow and a batter.
I ask not to be superior, nor do I ask to be anything other than accepted and ask simply for equality,
Disability equality is not asking for the insane or the impossible, but simply to enhance my life quality.
Here is a little known fact, it may startle you, but I assure you that it is very much true. I matter.
***
Jamie Scott Watkinson-Harvey