A person is a person is a person

Disability can be variable and due to many factors, including chronic illness and accidents. However, a person is not automatically vulnerable because of their disability. They are individuals who lead valuable and multi-dimensional lives.

Be mindful of incorrectly associating disability with vulnerability — including portraying having a disability as a tragedy or an affliction/illness. This is an outdated view that stems from the ‘medical model of disability’, which treats disability as a clinical deviation from ‘normal’, a deficit or burden to be ‘fixed’ or alleviated.

Likewise, people are not superheroes just because they live with disability. Avoid portraying people with disability who are married/have jobs/volunteer/have children/undertake daily activities as ‘extraordinary’ as doing so can imply people with disability are not capable of these things.