People don't "fake," their disability, they fake being well

I've been disabled since birth with Cerebral Palsy. I've used a walker and wheelchair all my life. From the minute I was born, I have been dealing with my disability.

Believe it or not, I wasn't always full of "disability pride." I had an abusive father who hated me for being born disabled and wanted to put in a state home for disabled individuals.

One of the weirdest conversations I ever had in school was with someone who said," Too bad you're disabled, at least you are actually disabled and not just "faking it,"

My first thought was "Who would fake a disability? My life is not picnic, who would chose this"?

I hear the "faking rhetoric," a lot in disabled and social service circles. A disabled individual in a virtual group said,

"Well, the reason I cannot receive SSI (Supplemental Security Income) is because of all the able bodied people who take advantage of the system."

Again, I was puzzled. Yes, lateral ableism is heavy in disabled spaces and we all have unlearning we need to do.

I received SSI until I was 27. I was a disabled child of the benefits system, SSI, waivers, Medicaid, etc.

Somehow in trying to prove how able bodied I was, I picked up the rhetoric and actually began to believe some "real," disabled people were being denied benefits because of "fakers."

I actually believed I was "more worthy," of benefits and accommodations because I was born disabled.

This is actually a huge "no, no," in the disabled community. Admitting you actually held (still might hold) ableist beliefs.

Here's the thing: Everyone is ableist, including disabled people, we live in a world entrenched in ableism. We are taught from an early age that reaching the able bodied standard is what we should aspire to and every part of our disabled identity needs to be erased. That's ableism. We must overcome our disability (Sorry to let you know, we cannot) That's ableism.

I had to work on my internalized ableism. We all have to keep working our internalized ableism.

It's a journey that will never be over for us.

The idea of people "faking" their disability is a TACTIC created by non-disabled people to keep the disabled community from receiving accommodations + benefits. It's meant to keep disabled people fighting amongst themselves instead of fighting the broken systems denying the accommodations and benefits.

You might think you might be helping the disabled community, by "weeding out the fakers," but it's actually incredibly harmful rhetoric that hurts the disabled community.

Yes, there is an increase of accommodations and benefits being needed, but, we are living through a pandemic, a mass disabling event, of course, we need more accommodations!

Remember, no one "fakes," a disability, we are faking being well.