Yes. Anyone can become disabled. It only takes an accident, an illness, or a medical state change to go from abled to disabled in the span of less than a day.

Twenty-one years ago I was able-bodied. Twenty years ago I was still re-learning how to walk.

After I finished adapting as far as I could, I sought out resources to help transition back to work, develop a new career, etc. Most of the resources were geared at children, or the lifelong disabled. After all, cute kids bring in the money.

What was there for adults was demeaning and almost completely ignored my intelligence. Yuck! I got very little help.

I found my own way, and then tried to reach out to these organizations to help others. They couldn’t cope: If I was disabled, I was a “client” only, not a resource. Only able-bodied do-gooders could be resources. It was insulting, and patronising.

So I put that on the back-burner. One of these days I may write about my retooling of my life, but not today.

The good news is that there are more of us out in the world now, with regular jobs and lives, so that disability is less of a dreaded mystery.