Through My Eyes
— Jamie-Lee Dwyer

I’m going out on a limb here to talk about one of those controversial issues that tend to get skated around a lot in disabilities communities: voluntary euthanasia (VE), also known as physician-assisted suicide. Last year, I met someone who…

Throughout history, fear of the abnormal has been deeply ingrained in the human psyche. Disability as a supernatural punishment In ancient times, impairment was believed to be the result of divine intervention. Seen as punishment for angering the gods, the…

Disability can be an isolating experience, depending on its severity and a person’s willingness to look past it. Of course it’s incredibly isolating. Every single disabled experience is unique, and it can be hard to find able-bodied people who understand…

Why is it so hard for some people to recognize that people with a disability are human as well, with the same needs and wants we all have? I have seen a lot of nonverbal people with a disability treated…

When I was younger, I just wanted to be healthy and able-bodied. When I went to sleep, I always dreamed of myself as walking; I never saw my wheelchair in my dreams. And when I was awake, I constantly imagined a future…

Growing up with a rare condition, I always relied on doctors and specialists to know how best to deal with my troubling body. Like most people, I left it to someone else to decide what I needed to do in order to…

Last year, my eyes were opened to high-needs disabilities when I moved out of my home and into a shared living situation with in-home care around-the-clock. It became obvious to me over time how difficult it was for the other residents to…

For those of us with FA or any other disability, overcoming adversity is part of our daily lives, to the point where we don’t even notice it anymore. There is a trick to embracing adversity, for turning life’s greatest challenges into some…

I was diagnosed with Friedreich’s ataxia (FA) as an 11-year-old. When I was about 15 or 16, the reality of my diagnosis hit me and I found myself struggling to cope with it. As far as I was concerned, my life was…