Stop Infantilizing Disabled People
This article is for people who mean well, but often do not know what to say or whether or not they are saying offensive things to disabled people.
Recently I went to a bar with some friends who aren’t disabled and at the end of the night a woman came up to me, grabbed my arm, and told me that I was “so adorable.” Able-bodied people may not immediately see anything wrong with this “compliment” in this scenario, but at a bar as a woman in a wheelchair, being called “so adorable” is not the “compliment” you may think it is.
It is actually viewed as infantilization, which is when an adult is treated like a child. As disabled young adults, we already face an uphill battle to be taken seriously in entering careers and dating spheres, etc., and these comments and actions reinforce our fears.
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