Micro Interactions With Disabilities

People with disabilities are people just like you or me and the way people interact with them should be in the same way someone would interact with any new person they come a crossed. However, in our society, people with disabilities are treated differently because abled bodied people see them as different or less than themselves. Abled bodied individuals do not know how to act around people with disabilities thus creating an environment where people with disabilities and without feel uncomfortable. I lucky have had the pleasure to be around many people with disabilities and I have been able to see first hand how these interactions affect them emotionally. By learning how to fix our micro interactions with them we can create a more inclusive society but many times people don’t even try to learn how to change their actions. People’s ideas around people with disabilities were created through the macro interactions happening in the past.

These children and adults I work with, and have to come to love like my own family, don’t always understand interactions either. Once, I was at the park with my friend Hillary who has downs syndrome. Hillary doesn’t always understand personal space or when people want to stop talking and move along. This is not always her fault she has a harder time because of her disability, learning how to properly handle these situations. However, many people who don’t know Hillary get angry or scared around her. They don’t time to slow down and try to communicate with her like she is a “normal” human. All Hilary wants is to make friends but when people ignore her or put their head down when they walk past her then they are creating an unwelcomed