I am proud of the accomplishments that I achieved in my life and I am happy to be a role model for other people with cerebral palsy and with speech disabilities. What I don’t like, however, is being considered a token disabled man. What I consider being a token is people thinking of me as an example of how all disabled people can succeed if they can work hard as hard as I did. That philosophy is based on a fallacy that I am going to refute in this blog. 

Periodically people come up to me and comment that, “You are an example to us all”, or “You are an inspiration”. I usually nod and smile but inside I feel like cringing. How am I an example and inspiration again? Of course, I know the answer. People seem surprised to see that I am so independent and capable; this really challenges their concept of who people with disabilities are.  They may see me as an anomaly that they can somehow fetishize. What they don’t see is that I am normal guy with a normal life with everyday challenges. Their lives might actually be more challenging and demanding than mine, you never know.

The second part of this assumption is that they are implying that other people with disabilities who appear to be less independent don’t deserve their attention. This prejudice dictates that the only people with disabilities that are fully autonomous in able-bodied society are worth interacting with. The detriment to that thinking is that they exclude themselves from knowing people that they might find a lot of common with. You cannot really know a person until you talk with them.

The alternative of treating me as a token is, of course, to take the time to really get to know me. How do these people know I am such an inspiration? I might be the laziest person ever for all they know. What would be better than spouting clichés is for people to get to know me and then decide for themselves who they think I am. Then if they still insist on calling me an inspiration I guess it will be alright.