It's hard enough for disabled people to get acting jobs without able-bodied people taking them. As an actor, I know that I'm not going to be stealing any able-bodied roles from any able-bodied people.
I don't think of myself as being disabled, or able-bodied.
A lot of people don't want to hire disabled actors. They think you're going to take twice as long over a shot, or they don't want have to put up a ramp for disabled access. They think, 'Why would I do that when I can just hire an able-bodied actor to play the disabled character?'
My hope is to be the first disabled swimmer on an able-bodied team at the Y Nationals.
The sentiment of those suggesting the Olympics and Paralympics be combined is no doubt well intentioned. But it also echoes the myth that disabled people want to be other than what we are - that we'd like nothing more than to be 'allowed in' with the able-bodied competitors.
We have the can-do factor, and us doing what we do I think inspires people to just try that little bit harder, whether they are able-bodied or disabled.
It's easy to think, 'Oh I could be able-bodied,' but throughout my life I always thought, 'Yeah but I could also be even more disabled.'
Eliminate irrelevant and inaccurate comunications about what it means to be male or female, black or white, young or old, rich or poor, disabled or temporarily able-bodied, or to hold a particular belief system.
One of the challenges in the Affordable Care Act was that it prejudiced the Medicaid system very much in favor of able-bodied adults, away from the more traditional Medicaid populations of the aged, the disabled, pregnant women, and children.
I just see myself as a driver. The disability plays a part but I don't see myself as disabled.
In its proper constitutional sense, the term [militia] means all the able-bodied people who can be trained and disciplined to act in the community’s defence when it’s attacked. Since it encompasses every able-bodied person, it does not refer to those—such as the police, the military, or even the National Guard—who formally compose the official defence forces of the nation. Every citizen able and willing to act in an emergency becomes a potential defender against attacks aimed at the general population.
We need people to go to work. If you're on food stamps, and you're able-bodied, we need you to go to work. If you're on disability insurance and you're not supposed to be, you're not truly disabled; we need you to go back to work.
I'm just blessed to be able to be alive, to be able-bodied and be able to play this game.
Athletes aren't allowed to have an opinion. It's tough. Athletes are evolving right in front of our eyes. You see athletes who are politicians, etc., and still, we're told to shut up and dribble.
If you're anything other than a white, cisgender, able-bodied dude, people are going to project narratives, imagery, and context onto you that you might not necessarily see for yourself.
Every movement ignores disabled people. So, during MeToo no one was talking about the experience of disabled women; during BLM the notion of black disabled people was just ignored and so in terms of comparison we need to have this movement for disabled people.