I try to laugh and stave off insult and anger at the backwards logic of the many evangelists that dutifully flock towards me, because my wheelchair apparently implies brokenness, sickness, ignorance, and sometimes even sinfulness to them. I am not one to mock spirituality or even religion if it is not used as an excuse to justify chastising other peoples’ behavior. But I have often been a target for passing preachers and can imagine that all of us with visible disabilities are easy targets.

It’s ironic that usually I was approached by these evangelists at the college where I pursued and attained my first degree and later worked as an academic aide. During entire encounters, they failed to see the triumphs that should be most prominent in me, because I was a student pursuing my education despite the challenges of a physical disability, and later because of my educating position at the college. O.K., enough about me. My point is that all of us with disabilities have been ‘intruded upon,’ or struck by circumstances we didn’t plan for, but if we persevere anyway, despite the struggles, we’re victors in whatever we do. I wish more people could see beyond the physical handicap or wheelchair to the triumph implied by it. Even in simple actions, we with disabilities make do with fewer resources or less strength, stamina, and ability than others require to do the same actions. (A colleague of mine–science teacher–once said to me in a patronizing tone “Oh Elizabeth, I can see that you do the best that you can.”  At the time, I was dumbfounded and speechless, but thinking back, I wish I would have patted him on the back and said ‘Oh Steve, I can see that you do the best that you can too.’)

I am really not arrogant. I just see two perspectives and wonder why the negative implications of disabilities  seem so prevalent in  our collective societal thinking. The physical limitations are right there, prominent if one uses a wheelchair or aid of any kind, but impression shouldn’t stop there.

This popular opinion makes it hard for me to see myself as a victor too, even as I see victory in my students.  But each of us who goes to college despite physical complications is, unequivocally, a victor.