"Disability doesn't make you exceptional, but questioning what you think you know about it does."
"No amount of smiling at a flight of stairs has ever made it turn into a ramp."
Source: I'm not your inspiration, thank you very much. TED conference, www.ted.com. April 2014.
About the author
Stella Young
Disability Rights Activist
Stella Young was an Australian comedian and disability advocate known for her impactful work in promoting disability visibility and empowerment.
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More quotes by Stella Young
"In case I get hit by a bus tomorrow, I want to make something clear - I am not a snowflake. I am not a sweet, infantilising symbol of fragility and life. I am a strong, fierce, flawed adult woman. I plan to remain that way, in life and in death."
"My disability exists not because I use a wheelchair, but because the broader environment isn't accessible."
"We’ve been sold this lie that disability makes you exceptional and it honestly doesn’t. … I want to live in a world where we don’t have such low expectations of disabled people that we are congratulated for getting out of bed and remembering our own names in the morning."
"I dance as a political statement, because disabled bodies are inherently political, but I mostly dance for all the same reasons anyone else does: because it heals my spirit and fills me with joy."
"I've been an atheist ever since I heard there was only a stairway to heaven"