People with disabilities all have unique lived experiences, but when it comes to their mental health, three people with disabilities told The Forum that members of the disabled community often face additional challenges and barriers that bind them together.
Twelve-year-old Nora Abrams keeps a busy schedule between her writing seminars, coursework and extracurriculars. She dreams of being a biologist and just finished sixth grade at her Fargo middle school.
Nora was born with a sensory processing condition, her mother Sara Abrams told The Forum, and needed to use mobility aids for several years, as a result of her physical disability, Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease.”
For Nora, one of the biggest impacts on her mental health is the behavior of others.
While she has a supportive network of friends, she said, she still faces bullying from her peers and obstacles from her school that stem from her disability.
Some kids tell her she doesn’t “look disabled” and that she shouldn’t be given accommodations.
“It’s pretty hard to see that I have a disability. I have gotten yelled at, teased, because of how I look or what I do. I definitely have gotten called out for using the elevator at my school even though I need to use it,” she said.
Intolerance doesn’t just come from other children, she said, but also from teachers and administrators at her school.
Read more at InForum.com
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