Hi, my name is Ola and I'm disabled.
No, you're not. Yes, I am. If I'm not disabled, then what am I, then
you're a person with a disability?
No, I'm not. No, she's not. Exactly. See, I'm not,
she's a differently abled person.
Uh, no, I'm not. I'm just disabled.
Yeah, I'm just disabled.
See, being politically correct when you're calling a disabled person,
a disabled person
or a person with a disability or different
disabled person is not actually that easy.
And here I just wanted to put a little disclaimer
in this video and in all of my previous videos and next videos,
everything I talk about are my opinions.
This is what I think this is based on my experiences.
So you may have different opinions and I respect them
as long as they are respectful to other people.
So you can always
your opinions in the comments below as I would love to hear what
you think about things that I talk about and what are your opinions?
So, I'm sure you've probably heard about differences between person,
first language and identity, first language.
As you can see in my videos.
I usually use identity first language when I talk about myself,
sometimes I use person first language when I,
when it just sounds better in the video because I can't just sit here and say person,
visibility person with the ball, they are disabled person, disabled person,
disabled person all the time because it just sounds bad.
So sometimes I mix them.
But generally I identify
as a person who uses identity first language.
So I identify as a disabled person and not as a person with a disability.
And I'm gonna explain to you why and what
are the differences if you're new to the subject?
So f so first of all, disability is an identity.
If you have a disability,
it doesn't mean that you identify or that you have to identify
as a disabled person. So you can identify whatever you want.
You may want people to call you a disabled person.
Like I do, you may want people to call you a person with disability.
You may want people to call you a
different disabled person or person with special needs.
It all depends on you. So you just have to let people know what version you prefer.
And you can always choose not to identify as a disabled person,
even if you have disabilities. I'm saying that again
because there's a lot of people who have some disabilities,
but these disabilities don't play big roles in their lives.
So they just don't consider themselves disabled people.
And if you have other disabilities that actually impact your life a lot. You still
don't have to
identify as a disabled person.
You are a person with a disability,
but you don't have to be a disabled person.
And of course you may have different opinions about it, but
I just see it that way.
I see it the way that when someone calls themselves a disabled person,
it means that they kind of belong to the disabled community
that they see ability being a big part of them.
And people who use other versions who use person first language, I feel like they
don't identify that much with the disabled community
and they don't see their disability as a big part of the person. They are.
So now why I identify as disabled,
I don't think I've always identified as disabled. I'm not sure I had like, you know,
identity issues with my disability for some time a few years ago.
But if you've seen my video where I talk about
things that I like and love about my disability,
you can see that I'm kind of on good terms with it
and that I really don't mind
that I'm disabled
and disability taught me so many amazing things
and let me experience so many things and let
me meet so many amazing people that I see it as a big part of myself.
And I want people to acknowledge that this is a part of myself
and that they don't have to avoid it when they talk to me.
And
of course you may say now if you've watched my v,
if you watch my other video where I talk about things that you shouldn't say
to a disabled person where I said that I don't like when people just call me
a disabled person.
But in a way that they, for example, talking to my friends and they're saying, oh,
the disabled one, you know what's her name?
Oh yeah.
Ola, the disabled one.
I don't like that because that shows that they only see a
disability about me. And it's not the only thing about me.
I'm a lot of things apart from disability,
that disability is one of them.
If you've seen my previous videos, you know that I can do a lot of things.
I am mostly independent right now.
So my disability is not impacting my life so much and
you can even see that my channel name is 99% able.
It doesn't mean differently abled.
So my channel name says 99% able,
which literally means that I'm disabled because I'm not 100% able.
So I am disabled.
I chose this channel name only to show that people who
are disabled are able as well because I am disabled,
but I am able to do so many things
and other disabled people or people with disabilities.
However you prefer me to call, you
are the same.
There is no person in the whole world who can
do everything who is able to do every single thing.
So to be honest,
each one of us is disabled in some part when we think about it like that
because each one of us can do something or is not able to do something.
And I know that we call disabled people,
disabled people because they are disabled because of
their illness or because of their disability.
And there's something different,
their body, but there are no people who have nothing different about their body.
So there is no normal, there is no norm in the world that we should all follow
and we're all gonna be disabled on some point because we're all
gonna be old and old people are usually disabled on some point.
So to be honest, all of us could identify as disabled right now because
everyone has something different about themselves and
no one can do every single thing. So no one is fully able. Of course, people who are
actually disabled, let's call it can't do something because of their,
because of their physical or mental issues or problems.
And that's what's stopping them from doing things.
But a lot of people who are considered to not have any disabilities still
have some physical issues or mental issues that stop them from doing some things.
Like not everyone is the fastest runner, not everyone is the best swimmer.
I hope you understand what I mean?
So now why I don't like people calling me a person
with a disability mostly because when someone calls me that way,
I feel like they're kind of trying to prove me that I'm actually a person
and I know that I'm a person so they don't have to prove that to me.
They don't have to show me that they see me as
a person because I see myself as a person too.
I'm a disabled person, but I'm still a person and mail
is not the biggest part of my life.
It's not even one of the biggest parts of my life,
but it is a part of my life and I'm not afraid to put it before
the
person.
So that's why I'm calling myself a disabled person.
But it's probably because I'm recording videos about disability.
I'm not going around the world like, you know,
introducing myself to people, be like, oh, hi, I'm Ola and I'm a disabled person.
It just depends on the environment that I am in
or people who I'm talking to.
And right now I'm talking to the camera
and right now I'm talking about disabilities.
So that's why I said at the beginning of every of my video so
that people actually know who I am and why I'm talking about disabilities.
Because when you look at me right now, I don't think I look disabled.
So that's why I always said the beginning of each of my video.
But if someone talks about me and they have to say
something about disabled because it's actually important in the conversation.
Then I would prefer them to say a disabled
person rather than a person with a disability.
And now why I don't like the typical politically correct version. So,
different
abled or special person because every one of us is special.
I'm, I'm kidding.
I mean, of course,
all of us are special but that's why I don't like someone saying special
needs person or special person about people
with disabilities or about disabled people.
Because how are we actually special?
Like there's nothing more special about us because we have a disability.
We are as special
as every other person in the world because every
single person is special in their own way.
And I know you may say that yeah,
but disable people need like a special accessibility
or special help or anything like that.
And no, we don't,
we don't need special help or special accessibility.
Every single person needs some accessibility like ok,
a wheelchair user will need a ramp or lift
to get to a higher level. But I need stars. I can't just jump to the higher level.
I need stars. So the society sees some
things that they have to make for disabled people to be able to
get somewhere or to do something as special needs or special accessibility.
But it's actually not special.
It just shows that this is that this
is the society who makes disabled people disabled.
I'm not sure if you understand what I mean?
But if the world was as accessible for people
without disability and for and for people with disabilities,
then people with disabilities wouldn't be special or need
special things because they would already have that.
So it's a society that is blocking people with disabilities from doing things,
from getting to places and from
all different things. And that's why
they
or we are called disabled because society makes us more disabled
than people without disabilities are because like I said before,
no one is able to do
everything and we are not able to do everything either,
but we are not able to do a bit more things just before just
because society doesn't let us do these things and it shouldn't be like that.
Imagine a mother with a child and trolley
and would you call them special needs family or something like that?
Just because they can't get up this just because they can't walk up the
stairs because the mother has a trolley and the baby is in a trolley.
You wouldn't say that they're a special needs family.
They just
need a ramp or need a lift.
And that's the same thing with wheelchair users or
other disabled people who can't walk up the stairs.
I'm just giving you an example.
There are a lot of different examples, but that's the easiest one probably.
So there's so many people who need special assistance
or special accessibility and they are not disabled,
but still it is considered that disabled people are the special
ones and they have special needs or need special accessibility.
And I just don't like that. It doesn't seem right for me.
Ok,
so now you know why I don't like people saying
special needs or a special person or something like that,
but why I don't like saying differently
if no one is able to do everything and we
are all differently abled in some way than why.
I don't like the saying differently abled.
It just doesn't sound good for me. I just feel bad when someone calls me like that
because I'm not differently abled. I'm actually disabled.
I am able to do some things. I am not able to do some other things.
And yes, I do things in a different way,
but it doesn't mean that I'm differently able.
I feel like saying differently able,
kind of show that there is a gap between people who are disabled and people who are
not disabled or considered not disabled and show that they are correctly able.
And the other ones are differently abled.
And like I said before, there is no norm in the world.
There is no one person showing that.
Oh, I'm the normal one and you all have to try to be as normal as I am.
There's no one normal. We are all weird. So there's also no one different.
We are all different from one another.
So that's why I don't like being called differently able
or that's why I don't like calling people differently abled.
And of course, if you ask me to call you differently abled, then
I would. But I don't think you are differently abled or that you're special.
I mean, yes,
I think you are special but not because of your disability.
For me, you are not differently able for me, you are as able as everyone else
and as disabled as you wish to be. And as you wish to identify yourself as,
I know it's complicated and I know
you probably have a lot of different opinions about that
and you may be not agreeing with what I'm saying,
but that's just my opinion and that's what I think because still disabled
people are considered the different ones and the ones who are considered able
bodied are considered normal
and disabled people are compared to those who are normal.
And for me, that's just wrong.
I do realize that people with disabilities or disabled people
have something different about them, about their physical abilities
and about their physical appearance or mental abilities.
But people without serious medical disabilities who considered able bodied,
still have physical differences and have
different physical abilities and mental abilities.
I'm not sure if anything that they say actually makes sense.
I've written a whole essay for it for my sociology at university.
So I hope it makes at least a little bit
of sense because I actually researched that a year ago.
But if you have any questions or if you need
me to explain something deeper or in a different way,
then please let me know in the comments or on my social media account.
You can always message me there on Twitter or Instagram.
Even when I'm not active there.
I am always there.
I always check my D MS and I always try to reply as quickly as possible.
I hope none of you feels disrespected.
I didn't mean to be disrespectful to anyone.
These are just my opinions and this is something that
I believe and I wanted to share that because maybe
you've never thought about it or maybe you have similar
opinions and you thought that you're the only one,
but you now know that you're not the only one.
So I really hope you like this video.
If you did, then please leave a like button and comment below.
If you didn't like this video,
then please comment below and tell me why you didn't like it
because that's important. I like constructive criticism.
And even if you didn't like this video because you didn't agree to what I was saying,
then please still subscribe to my channel
because it's actually really important to follow
people who you don't agree with on social media so
that you see both sides of all the opinions and
of the whole world basically.
So thank you so much for watching and I'll see you next time,
which is on Sunday and the Sunday video is gonna be a bit more chill and not as
complicated as this one and I will not use the word able or
disabled or differently abled as many times as I did in this video.
Thank you so much for watching and I'll see you next time. Bye.