Nina Grant

Since becoming visibly disabled in 2013, after several years in the invisible camp, I have become anxious about seeing people I used to know and meeting new people. Not just the inevitable “What happened?” (answer: “Technically, nothing—I was born with this”), but the misguided sympathy I now get for being a wheelchair user. Non-disabled people tend to see a wheelchair as The Worst Thing That Could Ever Happen to someone.

The wheelchair is not the symptom of my condition or my limitations—it is the thing that helps me continue to do what I do. So don’t aim your sympathy at my wheelchair. Instead, channel it into anger at the lack of wheelchair access that I and other disabled people face! Since becoming visibly disabled in 2013, after several years in the invisible camp, I have become anxious about seeing people I used to know and meeting new people.