I was born with a congenital heart defect called Transposition of the Great Arteries. Essentially my arteries were switched, my oxygen was mixed poorly & I would die before the age of 1 without surgery. Luckily, surgery was possible. I had a Senning operation which corrected the error, but made my right ventricle do twice the amount of work it normally does. Therefore I get tired quicker & need a longer time to recover. Also; I'm more immunocompromised than the average person & an infection could become endocarditis which is usually fatal.
From an early age I experienced ableism; the discrimination of and social prejudice against people with disabilities based on the belief that typical abilities are superior. I had to go on a seperate bus for disabled folk to school, even though my disability didn't affect the type of transportation I needed. I would sit in a small bus ("hey you go on the short bus hahaha") designed for people with wheelchairs.
Several times it was mentioned that I should be taking class in the "care room" (a room where they held the intellectually disabled & wheelchair bound) even though I could walk the stairs & I didn't have an intellectual disability; I needed no assistance or accomodation and had A+ grades.
In gym I was expected to do as much activity as the other children; if I didn't I would get lower marks "You need to keep up!" I'm trying! "You would probably be healthier if you tried harder" I would fail gym, but move on to the next grade. Grade 12 gym was a required pass in order to graduate...and I failed, but luckily I have a decent mom who was able to raise hell.
The gym teacher signed me up for a marathon which I refused to do, which is why I failed the class.
My dad however? Not supportive at all. During the summer I would spend days in the heat helping build the deck or garage or (insert super stressful thing to do). "Why do you need to stop? this is good for you!". When my parents split up he made me in charge of shovelling the snow. I live in Winnipeg, MB one of the COLDEST PLACES ON EARTH. It constantly snows in the winter. Sometimes he'd make me shovel WHILE IT WAS SNOWING OUTSIDE. Thankfully I was only there half a winter.
When I turned 18 I had to get a new doctor...who was not supportive of me. He told me, in front of my grandpa, that "You've just always been lazy". My grandpa quipped "So he was lazy the day he was born? because that's when the trouble started." The doctor was flustered & left without saying anything.
As I get older, I find it more "Places" than "People" that are ableist. For instance the place that I get my echocardiogram (sigh) it's UP an elevator, down a hallway, left, down another hallway, UP an elevator, down another hallway, right, down another hallway. WHO DESIGNED THIS PLACE!? Why does it take so long to get to the heart ward??
I had an exam at a local college and to get to this room I had to walk for TWENTY MINUTES. There were no signs, no benches to take a break, just a LONG hallway with classrooms on either side. "Room 200, so that's the second floor?" I ask the desk person "No, its the first floor" (*rage intensifies)
This is my brief rant about some notable moments/places that featured able-ism. Tune in for more.I'll try to do a more academic approach.
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