A Time for Thanks

By Kathie Snow:

As the Thanksgiving holiday nears, it’s time to reflect on the many things for which we’re thankful. I hope you’ll take time to share your appreciation for others—to personally tell people, “I’m thankful for you and what you do!” Words of appreciation can make someone’s day and inspire more great deeds! I’m thankful for:

• Everyone who uses People First Language and promotes positive images of people with disabilities.

• People who don’t pepper their vocabulary with disability-labels-turned-insults (such as idiot, moron, imbecile, lame, retarded, etc.) and who don’t use disability labels as metaphors (like “he turned a deaf ear,” “she was blind to…,” “the economy was crippled by…,” and so forth).

• Parents who have high expectations and dream big dreams for their children with disabilities—and their other children, too—and then do whatever it takes to support those dreams.

• People with disabilities who teach us what’s really important.

• Parents and professionals who recognize the expertise of adults with developmental disabilities.

• Parents and Early Intervention workers who ensure very young children with disabilities remain “babies in their natural environments” instead of the youngest “clients in the system.”

• Parents who choose to keep their three- and four- year-old children at home or in other typical settings instead of in segregated, special education settings.

• Educators who make inclusion work.

• Parents who know that inclusion in all areas—not services—is the path to their children’s success.

• Therapists and other professionals who practice as consultants and provide technical assistance so parents, teachers, and others can ensure children and adults with disabilities can engage in beneficial activities in the most natural ways possible, in natural environments—so they can live Real Lives.

• Physicians, nurses, and other health care professionals who help parents remain proud of and hopeful for their children with disabilities, instead of plunging parents into the depths of despair with dire prognoses.

• Parents who stand up for their children and reject the negative comments of doctors, therapists, educators, or others who presume to know the value, abilities, or potential of a child, based on a medical diagnosis.

• Parents who protect their children from attitudes, language, services, and interventions that destroy self- esteem and crush self-determination.

• People who embrace the paradigm that disability is natural, and who know that a person’s abilities, interests, and dreams are more important than a diagnosis.

• People with disabilities and family members who know that accepting services is a choice, not a mandate, and, as a result, they make thoughtful decisions and use the system as The Last Resort, not The First Choice.

• Providers who proactively collaborate with non-disability entities in their communities to meet the needs of people they serve in typical, inclusive settings.

• People with disabilities and family members who seek and find assistance, inclusion, reciprocity, and support from the natural supports in their communities.

• People who recognize the value of assistive technology, and who do whatever it takes to ensure people with disabilities have the tools they need to succeed.

• People who recognize the immorality of segregating individuals with disabilities—whether in special ed preschools, special ed classrooms, congregate living arrangements, day programs, sheltered/enclave work, and other “special” (segregated) activities.

• People who know that inclusion is borne not from laws, programs, and services, but from our individual and collective hearts, minds, and actions.

And I’m thankful for everyone who reads this message, shares it with others, lives it, breathes it, and commits to doing whatever it takes to create a more welcoming, inclusive society for all.

Happy Thanksgiving!

©2001-06 Kathie Snow, www.disabilityisnatural.com. Permission is granted for non-commercial use of this article: you may print this web page and photocopy it to share with others. As a courtesy, please tell me mailto:kathie@disabilityisnatural.com) how/when you use it.