Aimee Mullins Quotes

The world worries about disability more than disabled people do.

For lots of us, disabled people are not our teachers or our doctors or our manicurists. We're not real people. We are there to inspire.

A lot of times, we look at people who have disabilities as, 'Oh, we can't invite these people here or there.' And I hate that, because it's inappropriate. It's so weird to me when people say they don't have friends who have disabilities.

Pity? You don't want to be pitied because you're a cripple in a wheelchair? Stay in your house!

If I can be an inspiration for someone, that's fine, but just don't look down on me. Don't say, 'Oh, you're in a wheelchair.'

As disabled people, we are taught from a young age that those who are attracted to us are to be regarded with suspicion.

Why do we let blind people and people in wheelchairs become citizens? I feel sorry for cripples, but that doesn't mean I want them in my country.

You're not disabled unless you say 'I'm disabled.'

We think we know what it's all about; we think that disability is a really simple thing, and we don't expect to see disabled people in our daily lives.

People didn't always see a person with a disability who had to use a ramp or elevator as people who have been given unnecessary privileges. But I run into that often now. People are saying, 'Why do we have to go to great expense for these people?'

We are a society that treats people with disabilities with condescension and pity, not dignity and respect.

Disability is often framed, in medical terms, as the ultimate disaster and certainly as a deficit.

For me, disability is a physical experience, but it's also a cultural experience and a social experience, and for me, the word 'crip' is the one that best encapsulated all of that.

I use the term 'disabled people' quite deliberately, because I subscribe to what's called the social model of disability, which tells us that we are more disabled by the society that we live in than by our bodies and our diagnoses.

Being deaf or having any disability is not tragic. But the stereotypes about it are tragic.

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?'

Britain's way of dealing with disability is just to try and pretend it's not happening. A swift sweep under the carpet.

I don't generally talk about medical terms when I discuss my position as a disabled person. I take a social rather than medical approach to disability, and so long Latin names for congenital conditions are not relevant.

I think a person who is disabled should be disabled by no act of their own. If you become disabled because of alcoholism, drugs, or things of that nature, I do not think those conditions qualify someone to be called disabled. I think those conditions result from personal decisions.

A week before shooting, they told me, You don't have the part, yet. We're still trying to find a handicapped kid who can act. Either that or we break your legs.

I'm not an advocate for disability issues. Human issues are what interest me.

Disabled veterans are not a bargaining chip.

The magnitude of discrimination and stigma faced by people with disability in Australia cannot be underestimated. People do not understand disability, and people fear what they don't understand.

It's undeniable that what we are taught as a culture to believe about disability is at odds with traditional notions of masculinity.

Yooralla, like most disability service organisations, is full of good people who are passionate about the rights of people with disabilities.