I've blogged about the topic of this post before, but I've had to delete that post. In retrospect, this was not really necessary, so here it is again, slightly edited.
I realize this post is quite long. It's certainly longer than I usually make them. I hope this won't keep you from reading all of it, and would greatly appreciate it if you would share this post far and wide. That's how important I feel the message in this post is.
My dad has the annoying habit of coming across more strongly than he means to. Every now and again, that gets too much for my mom and she breaks down. One time when this happened, it made me think of how such behavior would affect the more vulnerable people among us.
When this happens to people without a disability, it might only frustrate them. This is bad enough, but what about people with disabilities? Perhaps more to the point, what about people who have disabilities that make them more vulnerable than the able-bodied among us? Someone who is that vulnerable might be more than frustrated by someone coming across stronger than intended. They might even be startled by them. If this happens on a regular basis, they might feel intimidated or afraid.
Do you regularly address someone more vulnerable than yourself? Are you sure you always come across as intended, and no stronger?
With this post, I urge especially the more defensible among us, to take care not to come across more strongly than intended. This might happen to you despite your being unaware of it. Please don't simply assume it would never happen to you.
We're all human, and we all make mistakes. It happened to me.
As always, I hope you enjoyed reading this blog post. If you have any questions or comments, then please let me know in the form down below.
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