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" In my own home, where I've been able to create an environment that works for me, I'm hardly disabled at all. I still have an impairment, and there are obviously some very restrictive things about that, but the impact of disability is less. "

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" Most disability charity hinges on that notion - that you need to send your money in quick before all these poor, pitiful people die. Peddling pity brings in the bucks, yo. "

Stella Young

You

Charity

Disability

" I have a condition called Osteogenesis Imperfecta (OI), which has affected my growth and bone strength. In short, people with the kind of OI I have generally experience hundreds of fractures in their lifetime and use wheelchairs for mobility. "

" By far, the most disabling thing in my life is the physical environment. It dictates what I can and can't do every day. "

" I went to school, I got good marks, I had a very low key after-school job, and I spent a lot of time watching 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' and 'Dawson's Creek.' "

" People with disabilities are simply part of diverse communities in the U.S. "

" It is nothing short of baffling to me how a city like Melbourne, where I struggle to find accessible facilities on a very regular basis, could be considered the most livable city in the world. I suppose it all depends on what makes a city 'livable' for you. "

Stella Young

You

City

" I've lost count of the number of times that I've been approached by strangers wanting to tell me that they think I'm brave or inspirational, and this was long before my work had any kind of public profile. "

Stella Young

Brave

Inspirational

" As a wheelchair user, I am utterly obsessed with toilets, and all my friends know it. A simple invitation to the pub is consistently followed by, 'Do you know if they have an accessible toilet?' "

" When I was seven and watched an episode of 'Beyond 2000' that featured a floating armchair, I thought we'd definitely have one of those by 15, at the latest. "

" I am repeatedly asked in interviews exactly 'what's wrong' with me, and I always give them the same answer; I don't identify the name of my condition in an interview unless it's relevant to the context of the story. "

" I currently live independently without any funded support. I'm educated, and I'm employed. I enjoy paying my taxes and contributing to the economic life of Australia. "

" Disability simulation fails to capture the nuance and complexity of living in a disabled body. And it certainly fails to give a deep understanding of systemic discrimination and abuse faced by disabled people. "

" My mother loves to remind me that about the age of four, I made a somewhat formal announcement that I was going to be a plumber when I grew up. "

Stella Young

Mother

Plumber

" I tend not to think about living to some grand old age. Then again, I don't think about dying, either. "

" For lots of us, disabled people are not our teachers or our doctors or our manicurists. We're not real people. We are there to inspire. "

" I once choked on a chip at a friend's birthday when I was seven and had to be sent home, as I'd broken my collarbone coughing. "

" From my first days in Washington D.C., where I rolled a whole four downtown blocks without seeing a single shop, cafe, bar or restaurant I could not access, to the beautifully accessible buses in New York City, I was in heaven. "

" I let go of the notion of wanting someone to ignore the way I look in order to find me attractive, because really, what kind of relationship would that be? One where someone's only attracted to you because they're ignoring a fundamental part of you? No thanks. "

Stella Young

Way

Look

" Personally, I like a generous side of wheelchair access with my cities. "

Stella Young

Generous

Side

" The killing of a disabled person is not 'compassionate'. It is not 'euthanasia'. It is murder. "

" It's undeniable that what we are taught as a culture to believe about disability is at odds with traditional notions of masculinity. "

" There are real-world, devastating consequences for disabled women marginalised by the kinds of attitudes that deny them full agency over what happens to their bodies. "

" The mere suggestion that not speaking for a day can give you an appreciation of the social isolation that comes with the experience of disability, particularly those whose impairments prohibit them from communicating verbally, is insensitive at best. "

" We think we know what it's all about; we think that disability is a really simple thing, and we don't expect to see disabled people in our daily lives. "

" Apologies are great, but they don't really change anything. You know what does? Action. "

" From time to time, people pat me on the head. It happens on public transport, in the supermarket, in bars. It's a common enough occurrence that it very rarely takes me completely by surprise. "

" I quickly learned that asking if an interview space was wheelchair accessible was a bad idea; it gave a potential employer an immediate bad impression. It was either a black mark against my name, or a straight up discussion of why I wouldn't be able to work there because they had no wheelchair access. "

" For me, disability is a physical experience, but it's also a cultural experience and a social experience, and for me, the word 'crip' is the one that best encapsulated all of that. "

Stella Young

Best

Disability

" The Paralympics have for too long been considered the poor cousin of the Olympics. It's always run after the main games and rarely gets anything like the media coverage. "

" I used to think of myself in terms of who I'd be if I didn't have this pesky old disability. "