Most of us here at BFC are "disabled" ourselves.
Some of us may have been disabled since birth or early childhood; and some of us may have become disabled as adolescents or adults. Or both.
However, until somebody actually told us about it, most of us would never have thought of ourselves as being part of a "minority group" just because we happen to have some sort of "disability."
This "Disabled Americans Minority Group" is not a group that most people would intentionally join, but it's the easiest group to "join" you could imagine, and the most diverse "minority group" anywhere.
You don't need to have skin of any particular color; or ancestors from any particular part of the world.
You don't have to belong to any particular religion, or speak any particular native language, or join any particular social club.
You don't have to be any particular age, or sex, or size, or shape; you don't have to have any particular number of arms or legs.
You don't have to reside in any particular type of neighborhood; or profess any particular type of sexual preference.
And you don't even have to work in any particular trade, profession or occupation.
All you have to do is have an accident or develop a disabling medical condition. Or be born with one.
Slip in the shower or fall down the stairs, and you could instantly become a "Disabled American" yourself, just like 23% of America's population.
Or you could develop any of a multitude of disabling conditions that progress gradually, such as arthritis, and not think too much about it ... until one day you discover that you can no longer do a simple life task that you had previously taken for granted.
But whether your particular disability happened gradually or suddenly; and whether your particular disability is temporary or permanent; the simple fact is that if you're "disabled" right now, you are a member of America's largest and most diverse Minority Group a group that's about 73 million strong at any particular moment in time.
The simple fact is that anybody can become disabled ... anywhere ... anytime.
The simple fact is that despite whatever disability or disabilities any one of us may have individually, and that despite the nature and extent of any particular individual's particular disability ...
... We are all still people, just like anybody else.
