Why is Mockery of Disability Still a Thing?
My little cousin started walking with a limp when he was a toddler. It just started happening out of the blue. His parents couldn’t figure out what could possibly be wrong. They were worried. They considered taking him to the doctors. What would cause a toddler who had been walking fine only a few days beforehand start to limp?
They asked him if he was in any pain. He wasn’t. Did he feel unwell? Nope. They were stumped.
A few days after he had started walking with a limp we went to visit them. His parents watched as he and I walked off together to go play.
Lightbulb moment!
My little cousin was copying me. He was seeing the way that I walked and was mimicking my limp.
Wearing a prosthetic leg means that I walk with a limp. I never notice it as my brain adjusts to maintain an equilibrium. Others do notice that I walk with a limp, but most people are so used to it that they often forget, as my cousin’s parents did until they saw us together.
I saw my cousin’s mimicking as a form of flattery. He wasn’t copying my limp to be malicious. In fact it was cute. There was a natural curiosity about it. A desire to be like his big cousin. I wasn’t the only person in our family he copied.
