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We want to hear from you: please tell us about your experience of the online community.

Do you have a role model or mentor for managing your disability?

StarryEyed

Do you have a role model or mentor for managing your disability? Or do you have many? Or are you going it alone?

I'll answer first 🤭😁

I don't have one particular mentor or role model, but there are many people I look up to for their guidance in how they manage their disability/disabilities. I also look to able-bodied people for guidance because they too are often relevant.

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Comments

MissMarple

I don't have role models, but there are lots of people I admire for the way they handle their disability and achieved things. E.g. Paul Alexander who spent most of his life in an iron lung yet he became an attorney.

Rosie_Scope

I'm not sure I have any mentors or role models, but I do follow some disabled people on social media who have made me look at disability in a different way and helped me challenge some of the beliefs I had about my own conditions. Maybe that's the definition of a role model? In which case, them!

StarryEyed

Hi @MissMarple That's one of the themes that I love too - against all odds. That's what I'm thinking you're saying.

I didn't really give examples like you do, so I sound very vague. Here are three examples of physically disabled people who I look to for guidance:

"Footless Jo" limb amputee. I love her because she's logical and confident.

https://youtube.com/shorts/iabYt4GLYlM?si=vZInyrMDCqWJJ30w

Cole and Charisma, a couple living with one of them being a quadriplegic. I love them because their adaptive approaches are interesting and creative. They are so incredibly respectful towards eachother.

https://youtube.com/shorts/TMdevTCRdsU?si=ojHMPUWwiPR0gKLX

Michael J. Fox, Parkinson's disease. I love him because he's honest about his struggles and so very helpful in his fundraising. Oh, and he's hilarious. His movie "Still" moves me to the core.

https://youtu.be/yHgMSR4F1Ak?si=KalVFn3MMSCnQXHW

I have tons more examples. Those are just some.

MissMarple

I loved Michael J. Fox in the series The Good Wife where he played a lawyer who showed great skill in weaponising his disability, turning people's bias against them. 😄

I've thought of someone else, too: Wendy Mitchell. She had early onset dementia and became an advocate for people with the illness. I loved her book Somebody I Used to Know.

StarryEyed

@Rosie_Scope that's exactly what I look for like you said "who have made me look at disability in a different way and helped me challenge some of the beliefs I had about my own conditions."

@MissMarple becoming an advocate is definitely something to look up to. I've never seen that show, but that's an interesting angle!