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As if I’m not already doing too many things to handle, I did one more. I went and made my first Public Service Announcement. It feels great. Why did I do it? Because I was inspired to by a wonderful conversation with Caitlin Wood (who runs the Where’s Lulu? website with Toshio Meronek). And when I say inspired, I mean I was moved and influenced by our conversation. The conversation motivated me to want to do something. And so I did that thing, which was making this PSA with Caitlin and Andrew Mowe. It’s wonderful to feel that type of inspiration. I want to make films, they gave me an idea for a film, they helped make the film. Tada!

The PSA is about the very painful, dehumanizing use of the word “inspiration” in our culture referring to disabled people. If you want to know what I’m getting at, the PSA is below. It is definitely a satire because we enjoy using comedy to discuss difficult topics.

I won’t speak for Caitlin, but I certainly don’t mind if someone is inspired by the work I do. But if what someone really means inside is “Your life seems terrible, and I’m amazed that you find a way to keep going” or “I didn’t think you could be so successful since you became disabled” then that is not really inspiration. That’s saying that you had low expectations, and I exceeded them.

Disability is natural, and people can experience disability in lots of ways at different times in their lives, short term or long term. When you come across the label “disability” please don’t lower your expectations of what a person can achieve. Also, we do prefer if you don’t use baby talk with us or block our path on the sidewalk to tell us something you think is amazing about us when we are just going about our day like anyone else.