A Quote by Jim Abbott

It's not the disability that defines you; it's how you deal with the challenges the disability presents you with.

Jim Abbott

Quote Topics

Challenges Deal Defines Disability How Presents

Quote Author

Jim Abbott
American - Athlete
Born: September 19, 1967

There are millions of people out there ignoring disabilities and accomplishing incredible feats. I learned you can learn to do things differently, but do them just as well. I've learned that it's not the disability that defines you, it's how you deal with the challenges the disability presents you with. And I've learned that we have an obligation to the abilities we DO have, not the disability.

Jim Abbott

A savant, by definition, is somebody who has a disability and, along with that disability, has some remarkable ability. Prodigies and geniuses have the remarkable abilities that the savant shows, but they do not have a disability. So, by definition, a savant includes someone with a disability, and a prodigy or genius are people who have these remarkable skills but they do not have a disability.

Darold Treffert

If I want to do something badly enough, I'll make it work, disability or no disability.

Rosie Jones

Disability is not a brave struggle or 'courage in the face of adversity.' Disability is an art. It's an ingenious way to live.

Neil Marcus

My disability is that I cannot use my legs. My handicap is your negative perception of that disability, and thus of me.

Rick Hansen

There is such a thing as genius, and these are people who do not have a formal disability, DSM-IV-type. They may have liberal eccentricities or quirks in their personality, but they don't rise to the level of a disability.

Darold Treffert

The Paralympic Games actually turned my whole mentality around about disability. When you're in the Paralympic athletes' village and there are 4,000 disabled people, you stop seeing disability. Totally.

Lee Pearson

As people live longer, disability becomes more of an issue. And there seems to be more children born with a disability. I don't know if it's true, or if we're just better at diagnosing certain disabilities than in the past.

Jay Ruderman

There are some cases that have come to my attention where there's been a head injury, or getting struck by lightning and surviving, with really no disability or residual. So there are cases that I'm aware of where there's been some incident which triggered the acquired savant ability, but is not associated with long term disability, so that can occur. But I think that's probably the exception rather than the rule in that I think many of the acquired savants do end up with some residual disability.

Darold Treffert

I was slightly brain damaged at birth, and I want people like me to see that they shouldn't let a disability get in the way. I want to raise awareness - I want to turn my disability into ability.

Susan Boyle

Back in those days, a parent looked at the disability and didn't see the ability. 'Life Goes On' showed that people with a disability can be included. Just give them a chance and let them learn. That's what the show was trying to teach.

Chris Burke

Every person with a disability has a slightly different kind of disability. Not everybody has the same problems. Usually the wheelchairs are the wheelchairs. It's the same height and so on. It's a problem.

Itzhak Perlman

I made a film about a person living with a disability. Those kinds of films are often about the disability, not who a person is.

Roger Ross Williams

I think that everyone has something about themselves that they feel is their weakness... their 'disability.' And I'm certain we all have one, because I think of a disability as being anything which undermines our belief and confidence in our own abilities.

Aimee Mullins

Having a son with a disability helps makes Walter White a more sympathetic character. There's no story line that shows Walt Jr. going through the things that you go through as a teenager with a disability. It's always his relationship to other characters. That was my issue with it.