The Little Big Wins For People With Disabilities

Do you notice ableism? Plus, love on the spectrum and the stress of email.

I write often about grief, but what I don’t talk about as much is my mom’s experience living with a disability. I avoid the topic because when I tell people my mom was disabled, I feel like it makes her death less shocking. As if her being disabled somehow made her life less valuable; her death more predictable. I want to be clear, her death was completely unexpected and no less shocking because of her compromised physical abilities when she was alive.

When I was eight, she suffered a brain injury that left her dominant side partially paralyzed. After official diagnoses from doctors that she would never walk again, my mom made an inspiring recovery—through sheer will, she learned to walk again with a cane and was able to do many things using her non-dominant side. Still, many daily functions were incredibly difficult; they left her frustrated and ashamed at the ways in which her body couldn’t meet the demands of our ableist society.

Growing up by her side, I have a sixth sense for ablei…