Before Ivy was born, disability felt like a bad word. A scary word. I tiptoed around saying it. Those perceptions bled into my actions and thoughts about people with disabilities.
It affected how I handled Ivy’s diagnosis. After Ivy was born, it became a sad word. I didn’t want it to be a word that described my sweet, tiny baby.
I didn’t want her to be pitied because of this word. Looking back, I see that it was just my ableist thinking skewing my perception.
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