Letter From the Editor: Disability Reaches All Relationships
Illustration by Elaine Ahn
When Refinery29 asked me to be the guest editor of Voices of Disability earlier this year — an honor I’ve had on four occasions now — they also gave me the task of coming up with a theme. I chose “relationships,” which seems simple enough. This year’s lineup features stories on friends, romance, and motherhood, plus the community that surrounds it all. These are the facets that make up every life, including for those living with disabilities.
Yet, like any bond, the most interesting parts are beneath the surface.
Lately I’ve thought a lot about the strings that tie us together. In theory, we all know we’re infinitely linked. Everyone is intertwined in a big-picture way where we’re all more alike than we think and blah blah blah. This is not usually how it goes in practice. In practice, differences can shut you out. A disability is something that happens to someone else, which is taking place over there. And if it is seen in public, it’s just sad. It’s entirely disarming. It’s… still separate.
