Regarding the D-Word

"Disability" is a hard word to deal with, especially as part of your identity.  The process of accepting or rejecting this word is often a life-long experience.  Many of the people I know who deal with the kinds of diseases or conditions that qualify for disability status do not identify as disabled.  This is a stance that I understand and respect.

However, I embrace the word, especially in our shared context.  In a space of education where we are talking about federal funding and federal laws that protect our rights to reasonable accommodations, disability is a word of power.  In this environment, disability is also a word of privilege.  It was not that long ago that our community foremothers and forefathers fought hard to gain the freedoms and access to education that we have today.  They fought so that people like us would have rights, respect, and opportunity.  In the United States, disability is a word that represents freedoms and the privilege of an accident of birth that landed us here in this country.  We could have just as easily been born in Russia or China, where disabled people are right this moment fighting for their rights and struggling to gain the same access to freedoms that we sometimes take for granted.

Is the Americans with Disabilities Act everything we need?  No.  It's not perfect in the least.  But we have it. It's a start.  And it provides protections that we are truly lucky to have in light of the global experiences of people with our kinds of limitations.

So, in the context of an academic experience and in a space of creating supportive community around our experience as students, I feel that disability is the right word to use.  I am proud to use it, to honor those who have lived before me and struggled for these rights.  And I am humbled when I use it, recognizing as often as I can the privileges that I have as a disabled citizen of this country.

Katie Koumatos