Promoting Positive Images of Disabilities

I have always felt that those of us closest to the disability community have a responsibility to raise and support awareness. We cannot allow the media or scientific research to create images of individuals with disabilities that are used as the basis for how others think, feel and interact with people who have a disability.

I do not have a disability but my sons do. I don't want their lives to be summed up by character portrayals in movies or horror stories reported in the media. I don't want their life outcomes to be predicted by contradictory research studies. My children, like so many others,  are happy, healthy human beings looking for their place in the world. We have challenges but they're not life shattering. We survive and move on.

My hope is that others will use their social media presence to promote disability awareness so that we ( I consider myself a member by way of guardianship), as a community, can take ownership of who we are and articulate how we want to be perceived in our society.