20 Great Disability Quotes

“Concentrate on things your disability doesn't prevent you doing well, and don't regret the things it interferes with. Don't be disabled in spirit as well as physically.”

- Stephen Hawking

“Disability is a matter of perception. If you can do just one thing well, you're needed by someone.”

- Martina Navratilova

"Each handicap is like a hurdle in a steeplechase, and when you ride up to it, if you throw your heart over, the horse will go along, too."

- Lawrence Bixby

"Let’s stop "tolerating" or "accepting" difference, as if we’re so much better for not being different in the first place. Instead, let’s celebrate difference, because in this world it takes a lot of guts to be different."

- Kate Bornstein

“No disability or dictionary out there, is capable of clearly defining who we are as a person.”

- Robert M Hensel

“Society's accumulated myths and fears about disability and disease are as handicapping as are the physical limitations that flow from actual impairment.”

- William J. Brennan, Jr.

I'm not an advocate for disability issues. Human issues are what interest me. You can't possibly speak for a diverse group of people.”

- Aimee Mullins

“I haven't met anyone yet who isn't handicapped in some way. So what's the big deal? Don't hide your deformity. Wear it like a Purple Heart."

- Georgiann Baldino

“Try not to associate bodily defect with mental, my good friend, except for a solid reason”

- Charles Dickens, David Copperfield

“I am conscious of a soul-sense that lifts me above the narrow, cramping circumstances of my life. My physical limitations are forgotten- my world lies upward, the length and the breadth and the sweep of the heavens are mine!”

- Helen Keller

“I choose not to place "DIS", in my ability."

- Robert M. Hensel

"Some people are always grumbling because roses have thorns; I am thankful that thorns have roses."

- Alphonse Karr

“The only disability in life is a bad attitude.”

- Scott Hamilton

“A troubled life beats having no life at all”

- Richard M. Cohen

“When you focus on someone's disability you'll overlook their abilities, beauty and uniqueness. Once you learn to accept and love them for who they are, you subconsciously learn to love yourself unconditionally.”

- Yvonne Pierre

“The world has a fast-growing problematic disability, which forges bonds in families, causes people to communicate in direct and clear ways, cuts down meaningless social interaction, pushes people to the limit with learning about themselves, whilst making them work together to make a better world. It’s called Autism – and I can’t see anything wrong with it, can you? Boy I’m glad I also have this disability!”

- Patrick Jasper Lee

“Chances are, disabled or not, you don’t grow all of your food. Chances are, you didn’t build the car, bike, wheelchair, subway, shoes, or bus that transports you. Chances are you didn’t construct your home. Chances are you didn’t sew your clothing (or make the fabric and thread used to sew it). The difference between the needs that many disabled people have and the needs of people who are not labelled as disabled is that non-disabled people have had their dependencies normalized.”

- AJ Withers

"When you have a disability, knowing that you are not defined by it is the sweetest feeling."

- Anne Wafula Strike

If disabled people were truly heard, an explosion of knowledge of the human body and psyche would take place."

 - Susan Wendell