theconcealedweapon:

Disabled Person: “I can’t do this.”

Abled Person: “Yes you can.”

Disabled Person: “Actually, no I can’t. I wasn’t putting myself down. I was just stating a fact. Everyone has some things that they’re able to do and some things that they’re not. This just happens to be something that I’m not able to do. Maybe there’s something similar that I can do but not exactly this. Maybe it doesn’t come natural to me but I can do it if you explain in detail how. By placing a high importance on one particular skill, you’re the one putting me down. I’m well aware that the only reason you’re defaulting to ‘yes you can’ is because you expect it to be a skill that everyone naturally has, which means you’re implying that there must be something wrong with me if I’m not able to do it.”

Abled Person: “Uh … Yes you can.”

Disabled Person: (gets angry) “No I can’t! You just ignored everything I said!”

Abled Person: “Geez! Why do you get mad so easily? I was just trying to help.”

…

(autism tags were used due to personal experience, but this post can be relevant to other disabilities, so comments from people with other disabilities are welcome)