Maysoon Zayid Quotes

I think there are a lot of myths about MS, and it may have affected my career.

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.

My mother, Laura Sumner, had cerebral palsy. She was born absolutely fine, but after about three days, she started having convulsions that left her with a condition that would confine her to a wheelchair her entire life.

If you're missing three or four limbs, you have special challenges going forward. And the last thing you want is to not be independent in your home.

Issues to do with disability, mental health and not being neurotypical often affect many genuine teenagers but are rarely reflected in the fiction they read.

I think it was hard at first for my dad to transition to being immobile.

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.

I took my sight and mobility for granted.

I can no longer walk in the street. That's over.

I am doing better now though one of my legs is shorter than the other due to the operations.

The most important thing is to bring people with Parkinson's into our world and for the public to have a real understanding of it, as they're beginning to have with autism.

We have funny ideas about how people in mental institutions act. We think of drooling and people going booga-booga and climbing the wall. These are exceptional cases.

I use an electric wheelchair because I have no sense of balance, and muscle spasticity has arched my spine like a cat's, while my legs are really just for show.

Once upon a time, there was a boy who didn't like himself very much. It was not his fault. He was born with cerebral palsy. Cerebral palsy is something that happens to the brain. It means that you can think but sometimes can't walk, or even talk.

I have a Children's Charity in Cuckfield, West Sussex, which helps young children affected by cerebral palsy and associated disorders. The perseverance these young people display every day is inspirational.

I posed for a gay magazine, which caused much comment. But it doesn't bother me. Gay people are fighting the same kind of stereotyping that bodybuilders are: People have certain misconceptions about them just as they do about us.

I've had lots of fans who come out and say, 'Listen, I can relate to Cyborg because I lost a limb,' or 'I have this cochlear implant.' It's one of those things when you actually start seeing it, when you actually start hearing about it, that made Cyborg more relevant to me than I think he ever had been up until that point.

For me, cerebral palsy wasn't the biggest deal, because I always had it. You know, you always work with what you got.

The VA should use every tool at their disposal to support and treat our veterans, including the specialized care offered by service dogs.

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.'

I do not want to be 36 years old and can hardly walk.

I think we ought to provide much more dignity and respect to individuals who need some care and assistance, whether they are chronically ill or disabled or seniors, it's the right thing for this country to do.

I think one in five Americans has a disability of some sort. That's 20% of the population, and yet we rarely ever see people with disabilities on-screen, and their stories and their resilience and their zest for life and their humor and their humanity.

Florida sends me a handicap sticker when I'm there. It's embarrassing. But I can't walk more than six holes before the whole knee swells up, and then I can't go anymore.