@disabilityinsight

📣 Disabled people can go to prom and it can be normal 📣 I had to share again: Prom season is upon us, and it wouldn’t be complete without the heroic and stunningly brave senior who dutifully asks that one disabled student to prom. “What a heart of gold”, we think as we skim through the story on some random news outlet who (for some reason) have covered the story to merely reflect the senior’s good deed - paying no regard to the disabled student’s narrative. The news story is *intended* to do one thing: To make you “feel good” (?), to “restore your hope for humanity” (?). But the news story *successfully* does one thing: Prolongs the belief that the disability community is different. And this is so dangerous. Every time I’m asked to explain inspiration porn, I use this exact prom scenario as an example. Because it’s perfect: Able-bodied person does very normal thing with disabled person but we think it’s noteworthy because we don’t expect the disabled person to perform or participate in it because they’re disabled. We rejoice. And there’s also extraneous amounts of praise for the non-disabled person. What a good kid. Treating a disabled person like a person. I’m going to be very honest here. Try to understand what I’m saying. These stories are dangerous for a lot of reasons. Too many to list in this limited caption. Disabled students are not your inspiration. They can participate in normal school things and it can be normal. Non-disabled students using a disabled person for attention isn’t inspiring, it’s actually really shitty. Disabled students deserve to go to prom with people who genuinely like them, to experience sincerity with their peers. Be a good person, and raise good people. This doesn’t include exploiting disabled teenagers with deceitful kindness to show the world what a nice kid you have. (ID in comments) Hashtags #Disabled #Disability #DisabilityInsight #DisabilityAlly #DisabilityAwareness #DisabilityAdvocate #DisabilityAllyship #DisabilityAdvocacy #InspirationPorn #DisabilityInclusion #DisabilityJustice #DisabilityStudies #DisabilityRights #Ableism #AbleismIsTrash #AbleismExists #AbleismAwareness #Accessibility #Inclusion #Ally #Advocate