Visible and Invisible Disability: with Jennifer Chassman Browne and Dr. Arielle Dance

Yeah.

And, you know, I just want to point something out that's occurred to me before we continue, and that is I'm sitting here.

We have three people who have been living with disability most of their lives, if not entire lives.

I have one woman with rheumatoid arthritis, another that started with endometriosis and went to other things.

Neither of these are things that would have been considered a disability up until very recently.

Yeah.

And it really comes down to focusing on experiences and challenges rather than labels, doesn't it?

For sure.

I mean, I can only speak from my own experience and what I've seen.

And I'll use the endometriosis community, for example.

I know other people who have endometriosis and they live these thriving, beautiful lives where endometriosis is like an inconvenience.

And then I know people who can't bathe, can't walk without a cane, can't function, can't work anymore.

And I think that debilitation is really what started the curve of us recognizing like,

oh, this

disease is debilitating.

It's checking off all the disability boxes, for lack of a better word.

And so... yeah i think you're right it's a little bit about what people are willing to call it for themselves and then i think knowing that you do you can call it a disability if you want to and that you have a community to help you and back you up is special for some people

Right.

I had a woman on the podcast a few weeks ago named Warren Harris, and she said that she had always known and was open about having ADHD, but she was not sure that she considered ADHD a disability.

So we do, in some cases, have the ability to decide whether or not something is a disability to us.

Yeah, it's interesting for me because when I was diagnosed, I remember as a child starting to get AARP magazines, American Association of Retired Persons.

And I thought, why am I getting this? I'm nine.

And my mother pointed out that there must have been some sort of list of people with arthritis.

And they made an assumption that arthritis is what people get as they age.

And so they started sending me this magazine.