For most people, it is easy to live a "normal" life. You get up in the morning (or afternoon), get ready for work, work productively, return home, and spend the rest of your day as you wish, either with family and friends or alone with your dog or cat.
You can buy whatever you want, showing a consumerist spirit, talk to whomever you want, and build whatever you want.
Want to buy a car, a house, or a vacation home? Take out a loan. Or use your savings. No one will say no to you. In fact, you are required to do so. Otherwise, why are you working?
And normality continues. You can choose whatever job you want, study, be independent, and ultimately be free from the "mouth" and words of society. Because, for many, the strongest motivation is to be "normal" in the eyes of society.
And sometimes, that's not always possible. Why? Because you're not an ATM machine that can constantly dispense money. So, you choose a credit card. Better, right?
And it's not always possible to be in on everything, whether socially or romantically, so you choose social media and dating apps. Or even discussion forums with others.
But society, for most people, accepts what is different. And embraces it. As long as you have money, fame, connections, or something similar. Otherwise, you are considered "outsider."
For example, if you don't have money to pay your loan, you are a bad payer. Your credit card, irresponsible. Don't have a home or family at 35? You're childish. Do you live with your parents? You're "sick."
Okay, here the things take on a more serious form. And I want us to focus mainly on what society says. It says, it says, but what does it say? That we have to be this way, talk this way, behave this way, buy these things in order to be normal. It loves and supports us as long as we do what it tells us to do. As long as we do what is "acceptable."
Of course, I'm not saying we have to be criminals in order to be different. No. Morality and peace are everything. Values that people with disabilities have, but are they ever recognized?
The main title of the article may be contradictory to the subtitle. Not because people with disabilities cannot live a normal life, because if I said so it would be stigmatizing, but because society itself puts them in a difficult position.
And we come to the crux of the matter: Why do you need all these external and material goods to be happy? Why a person with depression, who cannot get out of bed, considered stigmatized?
Why is a bipolar patient who has lost all their possessions considered a miserable person instead of being offered help?
Why should a woman who is blind or deaf be criticized and hear phrases such as "You are unfit to be a mother" or "You will never have children"?
Why should a man or woman who is above their "normal" BMI index feel guilt, shame, despair, and fear when trying on new clothes or walking down the street?
When disability speaks, society does not listen. It simply criticizes. But what do we define as normal and what do we define as abnormal? What is it that differentiates us from other people? What is it that makes us unique and special?
In a society where disability has no place, find or build a community where your existence matters. After all, isn't that why we came to this Earth? To love, connect, and accept each other just as we are...