Despite their disability..!

There are a lot of reasons i hate the idea
of ”despite their disability” but one
of the biggest is how it separates our disabilities
from the uniqueness of our lives

People like stephen hawking have spoken
about his illness focusing his thinking, leading
to some of his greatest work;
artists like toulouse-lautrec,
frida kahlo, basquiat,
van gogh - their disabilities were a vital part
of the genius of their art; scientists like turing
and einstein definitely had extraordinary ways
of working, in part, because of their diverging
neurotypes; monet created his famous water lilies
in largely blue hues because, in his vision loss,
that’s mainly what he could only see,
or how harriet tubman’s epilepsy would influence
her work in the underground railroad
and fervent dedication to enslaved africans

Beethoven’s symphonies are unique
for the lack of high notes that he could not hear,
ray charles and stevie wonder’s playing was shaped
by the fact that one hand had to play each key
while the other simultaneously read music notes
in braille, then memorize it by ear after learning it,
or even memorize it just by hearing it - claudia gordon,
dickens, francisco goya, tom wiggins…

so many disabled people who are lauded - and even
ones who aren’t famous but are always talked
about as amazing ”despite their disability” - are always
treated as abled people with an awfully sad flaw,
and the ways in which disability influences
how we create and see the world are totally denied
to us in that recognition

my talents go hand-in-hand with my being disabled,
and often are a direct result of it in some way - they
are not talents that grieve the ”tragedy” of my being
disabled and attempt to erase it,
they are talents that express and celebrate it