While I have had juvenile rheumatoid arthritis since I was 6 years old, I was a mostly able child. I worked hard to make sure that my illness was as invisible as possible, as I didn’t want to be seen as different from the other kids. As I got older, my body changed and my arthritis was more evident in the way that I walk and in the degeneration of my hands.
As a result of my disability becoming visible, I began to get stares and comments daily as I navigated the world. It’s one thing to face physical barriers, and to have to struggle to move about the world and to be able to go, and be comfortable in, the spaces that I want to inhabit. It’s a completely different challenge to know how to respond to the uncomfortable glances and comments. Let’s start with the first challenge of navigating the physical world.
Until you can’t climb stairs and sit comfortably in folding chairs or on picnic benches, you won’t be able to understand how many barriers people with disabilities face. This was even the case for me. I wasn’t prepared for how limiting I would find the world as my disability impacted my mobility.
