Ok

OK It’s ok to think I'm disabled, it’s not ok to ignore my atheism; It’s ok to know I'm firstly an atheist, it’s not ok to assume this has always been obvious; It’s ok to understand that I use a different typing method, it is not ok to equate speed with mechanism; It is ok to find my speech less than the emails I type and my files, it is not ok to hope that I find this cool; It's ok to suspect that I'm attached my computer, but it’s not ok to suggest that the Christians around me haven’t prohibited me from using it; It is ok to appreciate that I took some time aged 11 to learn how to type with my footswitch, but it’s not ok to say it took very long. It's ok to accept that I have a wheelchair, but it's not ok to presume I don't know motion; It’s fine to detect that to me my wheelchair is something special, but it's not sane to restrict my wheelchair to mobility ‘cos it's for sit-ups too to secure my legs on the bed; It is ok to realise that certain people have imbued into me confidence about my wheelchair, but it’s not ok to class me as severely disabled when I'm only a moderate - seriously; It is ok to feel sad that I can't walk well, it is not ok to presume I never have done; It is ok to deem wheelchairs as without bounce, it is not ok to guarantee that we’ve never jumped of a wall; It is ok to suspect that I can sit on a normal seat, it is not ok to promise yourself that I only transfer from my wheelchair when a carer is present.   It is ok to believe that I can love, but it is not ok to assume I always want to; It is ok to realise that I can love my carers, it's not ok to reduce me to this consideration; It is ok to speculate that I hold loving as more than protesting, but it's not ok to guess that I consider negative words as higher than the positive; It is ok to remark that I'm happier than other disabled people who’ve come before, but it is not ok to set my toleration points around theirs; It’s ok to demand that my carers should love me, it is not ok for you to just bypass; It is ok to understand me to be your pluralistic possibility, it is not ok to slander my pluralistic possibilities. It’s ok to gossip that I’ve had affairs, it is not ok to surmise this was fine with myself; It’s ok to speculate that other people have imbued into me confidence, it's not ok to grin that this was by accidental chance; It's ok reckon that I have a starting-point; it's not ok to glow that it got me to my landmarks and destination; It is ok to evaluate my view of the physical as sensitive; it's not ok to glance on my tears as having always been dried; It is ok to judge me as lustful, but it's not ok to disbelieve I went beyond; It’s ok to understand me to be your pluralistic possibility, but it’s not ok to slander my pluralism. It’s ok to call me a geek, but it is not ok to abstract me because I'm the specific; It's ok to find out that I have a joint degree in computing and management, it's not ok to spread it about that I'm a genius at computer science; It's ok to render me an idiot when I tell you that I did extremely well at management, it's not ok to prohibit me from walking away from you; It's ok to classify me in your mind as a liar when I say that I came top once of my marketing class, it's not ok to ask the minister to get me to speak to a counsellor; It's ok to say that disabled people are a community, it's not ok to define us as having the same education as each other (computing and human rights). It is ok to know about my life which I thought about once long ago, but it is not ok to keep this to yourself and withhold it from policy makers and researchers. It's ok to imagine that I'd like to be rich, but it's not ok to think that you don't make me feel rich. It's ok to maximise my independence, it's not ok at all to exclude me from it everyday; It's ok to render me endowed with an inside knowledge of the physical, it's not ok to claim that I have special insight; It's ok to testify that I can use my computer as a communicator if my speech is unclear, but it is not ok to assume I didn't program the phonemes channels in the lab; It's ok to see me go to church once or twice, but it’s not ok to reckon I believe in it and don't argue with the ministry team digitally afterwards; It's ok to talk to me and smile at me when I'm outside, it's not ok to ask for divine help afterwards or reciprocally. Not ok. So it's ok, if it's ok. Rhoda Monihan