Stella Young Quotes

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.

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

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

People with disabilities are simply part of diverse communities in the U.S.

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.

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

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.

For those looking at me, meeting me for the first time, it is the body they see. I am labelled as disabled.

I hate the words 'handicapped' and 'disabled'. They imply that you are less than whole. I don't see myself that way at all.

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

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?'

I don't think of myself as being disabled, or able-bodied.

The world worries about disability more than disabled people do.

It became very clear to me that Yooralla was not as interested in media coverage that explored issues faced by people with disability as it was in giving a pat on the back to journalists who maintained the status quo by giving readers the warm and fuzzies over their morning paper.

Disability simulation fails to capture the nuance and complexity of living in a disabled body. And it certainly fails to give a deep understanding of systemic discrimination and abuse faced by disabled people.

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.

How a society treats its disabled is the true measure of a civilization.

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

Disability in the Middle East is viewed through a different lens because you're in wartime countries where it's much more mainstream, so I was just never 'other'd.

While taking sign language in high school, one of our assignments was to go out and participate in the deaf community, so I really got to know a lot of the group from that. I felt like they needed a little bit more of a voice because people treat them different just because they're hearing impaired.

We do need more deaf people in Hollywood. But I don't think that deaf people always have to play a deaf role. I think we can play different roles. We need to see more diversity period. More people of color. More disabled people. More gender diversity. All kinds of diversity.

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.