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" 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. "

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" Self esteem and a healthy body image for people with disabilities are so often hard-fought. "

" I really love filling out forms - quite fortuitous, really, given that as one of Australia's 4 million-ish disabled people, ticking boxes and recording my life for other people is what I've spent a fair chunk of my time doing. "

" On the whole, my life is and has been wonderful. "

" I grew up in a very small country town in Victoria. I had a very normal, low-key kind of upbringing. I went to school, I hung out with my friends, I fought with my younger sisters. It was all very normal. "

" Let's not forget that the Paralympics, just like the Olympics, are built on a rich history. "

" We are a society that treats people with disabilities with condescension and pity, not dignity and respect. "

" My disability exists not because I use a wheelchair, but because the broader environment isn't accessible. "

" Physical access is one of the very first issues disability rights activists of the 1960s and '70s fought for. "

" Many of us, particularly those of us with disabilities who have faced persistent discrimination throughout our lives, not least when trying to find employment in the first place, take enormous pride in our hard-fought jobs and careers. "

" From pink water bottles for breast cancer to dumping a bucket of ice water on your head for neuromuscular conditions, it seems we're bombarded by requests to be 'aware' of one thing or another. "

" I do not identify as a person with a disability. I'm a disabled person. And I'll be a monkey's disabled uncle if I'm going to apologise for that. "

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

" I have a condition that is included among the 200 or so classified as Dwarfism. "

" 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. "

" The purpose of our justice system is to reflect the values of our society and to punish those who violate our standards. "

" We often hear that people mean well: that so many just don't how to interact with people with disabilities. They're unsure of the 'right' reaction, so they default to condescension that makes them feel better in the face of their discomfort. "

" When patronised, I'm unfortunately more flight than fight. Perhaps it's because I actually feel quite wounded. "

" 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. "

" The problem for many people with disabilities is not that we are not able to work a certain number of hours a week. It's that no-one will let us. "

" 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. "

" It became very clear to me that Yooralla was not as interested in media coverage that explored issues faced by people with disability as it was in giving a pat on the back to journalists who maintained the status quo by giving readers the warm and fuzzies over their morning paper. "

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

" Yooralla is a people pleaser with a very powerful PR machine. "

" 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. "

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

" In days gone by, short-statured people were not only labelled as ugly, stupid and freakish, they were often owned by aristocrats and treated, at best, as entertainment and, at worst, as pets. "

" 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. "

" My everyday life in which I do exactly the same things as everyone else should not inspire people, and yet I am constantly congratulated by strangers for simply existing. "

" The sentiment of those suggesting the Olympics and Paralympics be combined is no doubt well intentioned. But it also echoes the myth that disabled people want to be other than what we are - that we'd like nothing more than to be 'allowed in' with the able-bodied competitors. "

" Believe me, people with disabilities are just as concerned about benefit fraud as anyone else. Money spent on those who are not in need is money that isn't being spent on vital services to support us in the community. "