It’s no secret that I get stared at A LOT in public, not because of my stunning beauty, but because of my short stature and 400 lb wheelchair. Most of the time it’s by kids, which doesn’t really bother me because they obviously haven’t been taught how to be around someone who is physically different. Adults…. that’s when I get frustrated. I love to stare right back at them and make them just as uncomfortable as they make me… and trust me, I’ve gotten some pretty funny reactions! My favorite is when they run away as if I am a rabid dog. You gotta have SOME fun, right??
I was talking with my able-bodied best friend from grade school the other day and she said, “you know Katherine, we never thought of you as anything but just Katherine. Your ‘disability’ really didn’t exist in our eyes at seven years old.” Because I was in a class with eighteen other kids that had completely normal bodies, I always felt and acted relatively normal myself. And because of THAT, the kids that grew up with me understand how to act around people who might be a little different. More than likely, they’d just go up to a disabled person and start talking to them. That’s what I’d want someone to do – especially because it’s such a New Orleans thing, right? We talk to each other in the grocery, the gas station, wherever. This is exactly why I’m a proponent of school inclusion. If kids who are physically different are included in mainstream classes as much as possible at an early age, it not only benefits them, but also their able-bodied classmates. It teaches acceptance and tolerance, which in today’s world, seems few and far between.