One thing I wish more non-disabled people understood: mobility aids are not declarations of total incapacity.

They are tools that make participation possible.

Using a wheelchair at an airport may be the reason I can still walk through parts of a trip later. Sitting down before my body crashes is often what prevents a more dangerous crash entirely.

But our culture sees accommodations as something you earn only after complete physical devastation.

There’s very little room for preventative care. Very little room for disabled people who exist in the grey area between “fine” and “fully incapacitated.”

And yet so many of us live there.