Thread by @DrFrancesRyan

Getting a lot of tweets from non-disabled people telling me we shouldn’t call Greta Thunberg disabled. Each follows a similar message: “I can't see Greta as disabled. Her achievements are incredible.” I just want to quickly unpack this. 1/?

It’s for Greta to identify how she wants. She talks about her disability openly but I’m not sure if she personally uses the term ‘disabled.’ That’s entirely her decision. (Please correct me if she’s made this clear publicly.) But that isn’t the issue here. 2/?

When non-disabled ppl say ‘I can’t see you as disabled. You’re incredible!’ it isn’t a compliment. What you’re saying is that disability and achievement are mutually exclusive. You’re saying disability is negative and you’re respecting someone more by not labelling them it. 3/?

It assumes that people don’t want disability as part of their identity - because you can’t understand why anyone would want to identify with something you’ve been socialised to see as bad. It’s not bad. Disability is not bad. 4/4

Thanks for cheers. There’s some more confusion in the replies: from are non-physical disabilities really disabilities to let’s use “differently abled”. I’m not going to explain each but there’s endless info out there to find. Follow some disabled people! Read disability rights!