Ability Privilege

I read this article today on the Everyday Feminism website:

Examples of Ability Privilege

It reminded me of how I felt when I was recuperating from hip replacement surgery in 2008.

When I broke my hip, the part of my identity that I took for granted the most was my status as an “able” person in society. While I had been limping for about a year without diagnosis, I had always considered myself strong and independent. While standing in my parents’ driveway, I slipped on the ice and broke my hip before even hitting the ground. In less than three seconds my whole world changed. While I didn’t know it at the time, those three seconds changed my status in society instantly. After thirty-one days as an inpatient in two different hospitals, and two surgeries (the second of which was a hip replacement), I was finally diagnosed with a Giant Cell Bone Tumor. They removed the tumor (which was the entire upper portion of my femur) and replaced the hip, but the tumor meant that unlike a normal hip replacement patient, I wouldn’t be able to bear weight on my leg for months. So I arrived home at my parents’ house grateful to be anywhere but a hospital, not ready for the fact that I was now just not a hospital patient, but something else: (temporarily) disabled.

Since I had already agreed to end my employment at First Presbyterian, Ithaca in July to start at the Warner School in the fall, and the surgeon told me that I wouldn’t be able to work until September, I no longer had a job. While I got temporary disability, and the church was generous financially, losing my identity as a “professional” mattered more to me at times than my absent salary. Our identities are so entwined with “what” we do, that I realized I had never defined my identity without a profession included in the description. For the first time in my life I had to learn how to define myself without using what I DID as the basis of it, because other than physical therapy, just getting through my day took up most of my time. For the four months I couldn’t walk.  I also couldn’t drive, use a non- handicapped restroom alone, or work. The situation was so depressing at times that I couldn’t fathom being permanently disabled. For the most part society does not support those who are disabled. It is embedded in our social and physical societal structures, from the powerful set of stairs at the front of most buildings that makes them look as imposing as they are to those who can’t walk, to the glares you get when riding a “mart-kart” through the grocery store. People didn’t look at me beyond my walker.  

Matthew 5:11-12
“Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.  Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you."