I sit there in my wheelchair, struggling as I try to grasp an item off the shelf with the sides of my arms. This is my usual method since my fingers and hands are paralyzed.
A woman passing by tells me to take off my mittens.
"That won't help. My hands are paralyzed," I say.
"Oh," she said. "I thought you were retarded."
6 comments:
This made my day to see in print the kind of ignorance out there about disability. I'm also a quad and experience things like this. Can see from your blog that you have a good sense of humor which I do also. Comes in handy, doesn't it or more like necessary.
Tom
Life would be pretty miserable without a sense of humor, for sure. Was just sitting here chuckling at something else - hehe. Glad you stopped by, Tom.
While this made me laugh despite myself, Ruth, it also made pause and think (as so many of your posts do) about just how rude people can be. Sending you a hug covered in baby drool,
Sarah
Yeah I don't think this was written to be meant as funny as in ha ha but funny as in offbase. I agree with you Sarah about how rude it was.
I can't even begin to unpack the levels of weirdness in that comment. You're in a wheelchair - because you're retarded? Then - if you don't have a developmental disability, it must be okay to speak scathingly of one?
Sr. Edith - Struck me as having several possible meanings too. Disturbing either way. Then I wondered if it's about the use of the 'r' word as slang, how that gets thrown about too.
Sarah, thanks for the hug!
hotwheelz - offbase is a good word for it.
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