Stella Young Quotes

People tend to treat people with disabilities sort of like they're aliens from another planet. It doesn't come from a bad place; it comes from a place of, 'I have no idea what this disability entails, and I don't want to offend anyone or make them feel awful.'

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

I didn't know anything was wrong with me when I was growing up. I thought everyone went to occupational and speech therapy, I thought these were common things. I thought I was quite normal until I went to school and someone told me it wasn't normal to have a disability.

I don't want to see myself as this sad, disabled girl. I know that. I don't want other people to see me as that, either.

The chief handicap of the blind is not blindness, but the attitude of seeing people towards them.

I resent having to prove that I'm not a retard.

People don't know. People are ignorant. They feel that if you stutter, then you're slow or whatnot.

Although there exist many thousand subjects for elegant conversation, there are persons who cannot meet a cripple without talking about feet.

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.

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.

We're normal people. Don't be scared because we are in a chair. People don't understand that. They think, 'Oh, a wheelchair, something's wrong with their heads, something's just not right.' Well yeah, we may be a little twisted, but no more than anyone else.

People get all up in arms when I describe myself as a crip because what they hear is the word 'cripple,' and they hear a word you're not allowed to say anymore.

We often hear that people mean well: that so many just don't how to interact with people with disabilities. They're unsure of the 'right' reaction, so they default to condescension that makes them feel better in the face of their discomfort.

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

Congress acknowledged that society's accumulated myths and fears about disability and disease are as handicapping as are the physical limitations that flow from actual impairment.

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

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.

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

Disability doesn't make you exceptional, but questioning what you think you know about it does.

You never make fun of anybody with a club foot or a withered arm, but it's open season on anybody who stutters.

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

In addition to pain, disability, and disfigurement, lymphatic filariasis carries a heavy social cost. Those disfigured by the disease are often shunned. Women are often rejected by their families. Both men and women can have difficulty finding jobs.

I didn't tell people because I didn't want pity, and I was afraid I wouldn't get work. But others with MS need to know they are not alone. We don't have to be victims.

I don't think many people stare at people in wheelchairs because we see it regularly. I suppose if you see more in the media it will take away the curiosity.