Stella Young Quotes

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

People who are much too sensitive to demand of cripples that they run races ask of the poor that they get up and act just like everyone else in society.

Disability, in general, hasn't been included in the conversation about inclusivity.

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.

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.'

Lesbians and gays... they still have to fight, even inside. It's not that simple, even if they seem to be accepted.

I was the first South Asian female to do comedy videos on YouTube. But at the same time, all races face their barriers, and I've learned through YouTube, if it's not race, it will be sexism, if it's not sexism, it will be homophobia. It will always be something, and all voices should be heard.

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.

A lot of roles for people with disabilities are quite patronising. It's a real pity when they are just used to give dull PC kudos to a drama, or when they're wheeled on in a tokenistic way without any real involvement in the plot.

I figure this current era of history is the one with the best chance of quality of life for a black, female, disabled, middle-aged, queer person who's most comfortable not fitting in. The odds still aren't great, mind you. But I'll take my chances with the 21st century.

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

Whether you're gay or straight, with a physical disability, your skin's a different color, it's absurd in this age to not be aware and be concerned of the inequity in rights.

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

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

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

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.

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.

I felt like I was an outsider growing up in the black church, as a gay man, in a poor community.

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