What experience do you have of disabilities?

[BlancmanegeBunny]

Growing up I had experience of family friends with hearing loss and learning difficulties / downs syndrome/ MS. As a young adult a family member had two children with a significant degenerative life limiting condition and now I have a child with learning difficulties who attends a special school which now brings me into contact with other pupils who have disabilities.

I am curious as to how much interaction others have and how comfortable they are around those with disabilities.

Tons, my dad is disabled as are all of my siblings- in multiple different ways, genetic, developmental and acquired.
My older relatives all developed disabilities throughout their lives, mostly before I was born- hearing and vision loss, MS, brain damage and amputations (through diabetes and an accident).
I have worked in multiple learning disability focussed settings.

I have never been uncomfortable around disability- I was almost suprised when my children came out able bodied and neurotypical- we are the outliers in my family.

Lots here too but mainly autism - my children are both autistic, my brother's child is autistic and having autistic children meant that my circle of friends very quickly became one of autistic adults and parents of children with disabilities, mostly autism. I also have worked as a teacher with disabled children (I don't any more).

I grew up with a brain damaged relative and when he moved to residential care, his knew friends who also had high care needs.

My close friend at secondary school used hearing aids.

My close friend at uni used a wheelchair. Sometimes we'd do a seat swap and I'd sit in it if chairs were scarce. That could lead to interesting social observations, especially around drunk people. There's a 40yo man out there with a story about watching a miracle as the girl in the wheelchair rose up, and pushed the girl with crutches away 🤣

DS has autism and dyspraxia.

I tend to aquire dyslexic and dyspraxic friends. With hindsight I think I've had undiagnosed autistic friends too. TBH, I wouldn't swear that I was neurotypical.

I like interesting people with their own experiences. I like "quirky" and individual, and feel lost with very conformist people.

My only sibling, very close in age, has a profound learning disability. They went to special school, which I used to love fundraising for as a kid, and I would say I grew up amongst the wider disabled community.

My sibling and their peers are a massive part of my life, even now. It's one of the greatest gifts bestowed on me.

My youngest (now adult) son has autism and some learning and mild physical disabilities and went through Special School and will never be independent. My eldest has Aspergers.
I've spent 17 years working in Special School with everything from ASD to life limiting illnesses and disabilities. (I've taken a 6m break but am going back to it next month!)
Since DS2 was little my summer holiday has been spent camping with a large group of people who have children/adults with disabilities.

My other kids... one's a doctor, one's a Learning Disabilities Nurse, One is an Autism worker. I think DS2 shaped them somewhat!!!

When my kids first starting having serious boyfriends/girlfriends, the big test was taking them to our annual SN camp. The ones they married are the ones who despite not having been exposed to such a ray of disabilities before, just enjoyed being there, and more importantly , loved DS2. One became a SN TA herself :)
DS2 has taught us all :)

I am a carer for my immediate family member who has severe physical and mental disabilities. I have been my whole life, but more so in the past 5 years when our parents died.

it’s tiring at times as I have my own family now, but she’s my sister, and part of me.

Also, my youngest child is autistic.

I'm disabled as a result if an RTA many years ago I have a ds and a db with physical and learning disabilities. I work with people with additional needs. So quite a bit.

My gran had MS and was using a wheelchair throughout my memory of her.

My mum developed arthritis that left her quite immobile and using a wheelchair for a number of years before she died.

My uncle had, at the time undiagnosed autism, it was a real shame that due to the era he never really got proper support for that.

And my sil has multiple physical and learning disabilities.

So yeah, quite a lot of experience of people around me living with disabilities of different kinds.

My experience is that the people you see out and about often have relatively mild disabilities. Then people tend to think that’s what disability is. They don’t realise that there’s a whole load of people who are too profoundly disabled to go out.

It really annoys me in relation to things like Downs Syndrome. People keep saying they’re happy and friendly and can have a good quality of life. No, you’re talking about people with mild Downs. Those who are severely affected are often housebound, incontinent, non-verbal, have serious heart and lung problems, etc.

@StillMedusa My 17 year old dd volunteers once a week in a special needs school, she is in a class with pupils her age with profound and complex needs.

She also judges boyfriends / friends by how they accept her brother😂

A sibling has autism and went to a special needs school

if i'm honest, very little! I have a couple of friends who wear hearing aids but I don't really think of them as disabled, a friend's son has Downs and I have a couple of adult friends who i'm fairly sure have high functioning autism but were never diagnosed as kids. I guess my dad is disabled as his mobility is going with age but he refuses to even get a blue badge for the car.

my late DF had PTSD - we called them his “white nights” - when he would scream and scream, relying war experiences. Because of war injuries, he became physically disabled, was deaf and then developed paranoid delusions and altzheimers.

i am deaf and have had physical disabilities my whole life.

Non growing up
My youngest son has severe autism and learning disabilities, he goes to a special school for children with severe and profound learning disabilities, he's non verbal, he's 12 he also has an underlying chromosome deletion ,through him I have met lots of families with children with disabilities
My mum. Is very physically disabled now and in a wheelchair.

Very little until recently - apart from my DF having hearing loss and my Grandma having all sorts of illnesses including dementia. I was very young then but I think it was an important early exposure to the need for patience and understanding of people who have different needs. In the last 10 years I've become much more aware as several friends have had their DC diagnosed with autism and I've been a governor at a special school, which has been a steep learning curve for me. It seems like disabled people are invisible in society unless you're somehow impacted or involved personally. It's sad.

Born with various neurological issues, many of which weren't diagnosed until much later in life, born visually impaired, started losing my hearing around 26 and diagnosed with Autism at 23.

I have various relatives with Autism and epilepsy.

I have cerebral palsy and a close relative has autism.

I have a child with Downs Syndrome. Prior to having him I hadn't come into contact with many people with disabilities. But, I think things are slowly changing and inclusion is getting better. I see it in my kids schools etc. I think being more aware of disabilities benefits everyone, I now run a website where I work with artists with disabilities. It has really opened my eyes to how much more varied the world is than I originally thought. And that's a good thing. We're not all made in the same mould. It teaches us to be more accepting of everyone's quirk with/ without a disability. There's also less pressure to conform in one way or another.

My great grandmother was a wheelchair user, my grandmother was a wheelchair user, my cousin has severe learning disabilities, my other grandmother had lifelong schizophrenia, one of my nephews is profoundly deaf, and I have an upper limb disability. So quite a log of experience I guess

None other than age related deafness.