Why does disability make people so uncomfortable?
I work for a pretty large national nonprofit, and I've been doing some disability advocacy through it and have been in my personal life prior. I've noticed though that people just go silent, or sort of discourage me from talking about it? My responsibilities in my position is to ensure our organization branches out and that our programs are inclusive, so it's very relevant to my position. The person responsible for hiring me said she had specifically hired me because I am disabled and have a history in disability advocacy. She no longer works here, but since she left I noticed it just seems to be a sore topic for my team? They either get quiet and have no response, or they just write it off or say we don't have the means to address that right now. Disability is really tied in with our cause, but our organization has done so little to address it or...really much lately. I think my position here seems sort of absolute, because it feels more like I'm filling a space than expected to do the work I was hired to do. The team doesn't really even seem like they expect me to stick around, which makes me think my position was the idea of the girl who hired me. Not the actual organization. Anyway. Outside of my job, people just do NOT like hearing me discuss disability. I get that people may not know what to say, or it's "taboo" for them, but I would hope we're past this point. I'm also fairly wary to discuss my own disability, unless someone specifically asks or I need too. So it just feels strange to me? I know I'm not challenging anyone or dumping private information onto them. It feels like either I've said something that I don't realize is controversial, or they're not addressing something too me. Does anyone else experience this? It feels so strange and it makes me feel like I'm being judged or I'm just really tone deaf. It's not like this when I interact with other disability organizations though, I've got a pretty good connection with other nonprofits and grassroots organizations that focus on Disability which reassures me a bit. I've been told recently during a conference that if I'm coming into this issue so often, that I'm not in disability-friendly enviorments. But I have a really hard time accepting that I guess.