WHAT IS NORMAL

Normal is a word that can be used both to unite and to divide or even destroy. As a character in one of the Star Trek movies once put it: "Normal is what everybody else is and you are not." I have always thought "you" could mean anybody, not necessarily just the character whom he was addressing. People with Disabilities are often talked about and thought of as being "Not Normal" because there is something different about the way we move, speak or think, or a combination of these. It is true that a person in a wheelchair does not move exactly like a person that can walk, or that a person with a Mental Disability may approach the world differently than a person without a Mental Disability. But if we say such differences makes the person "Not Norma" we are stripping them of their personhood. And if we seek to eliminate Protections that ensure Equality in Access and General Treatment of People with Disabilities, we are declaring them outside the mainstream of society and in some other category of being and so declaring them "Not Normal". Something the advocates of restricting the scope of The Americans With Disabilities Act or even getting rid of it entirely might want to think about before taking any further action in this destructive direction.