My name is Morgan Clendennin. I am a 20-year-old collegestudent from Connecticut. I live with a genetic disorder called Spina Bifida. In case you are not aware of what Spina Bifida is, it is a disorder in which the vertebrae do not fully form and an individual may be able to walk or may not. I am able to walk with two canes and do many things that my doctors once told me that I wouldn’t be able to do.
I am making this petition because I find that there is a growing problem in this country surrounding the word “disabled”. I am handicapped but I am not disabled. Anyone can be found to have a handicap if you look close enough. This brings me to my point. Just because I am handicapped, many people assume that I cannot function like a normal human being and do everything that a normal person loves to do. The truth is that I do function like a normal human being and that I do participate in many things that a normal person does. Every time a person uses the word “disabled”, I cringe at the sound. It makes me uncomfortable because I know that nobody is truly disabled in the sense of not being able to do anything. That is why I would like to start a campaign to end the word because nobody should ever have to live with the feeling that they are “disabled”