Not born this way

Hi, I'm Michael, and I'm a stroke survivor.

Having a stroke is a sliding door moment. One minute you're 'normal,' and the next, you're not. You don’t know it’s coming, you can’t predict how it will affect you and you certainly can’t plan ahead. Suddenly, you find yourself unable to do things you once took for granted.

Seeking input

The other evening, while waiting for someone, I had the chance for a quiet one-on-one conversation with an acquaintance who is partially blind. He’s a great guy—professionally successful and always good for a chat. I wanted to talk about some of my experiences—the frustrations, the learning curve and the challenges that came with them. I was curious to hear his perspective as someone who was born with a disability, unlike me, who acquired one later in life.

Born this way

He opened up and explained that he couldn’t fully relate to my frustrations because he was born this way—he’s never known anything different. However, he could imagine how difficult it would be to suddenly go from able-bodied to disabled; when you’ve had the experience of knowing what life was like before.

Support structure

He shared that although he attended a regular school, every other Friday he went to the Vision Australia school, where they taught him how to use aids to navigate his disability and live in the ‘normal’ world. Those tools were invaluable, he said. Without them, he would’ve been at a serious disadvantage when completing school and applying for a job. None of us want to stand out, and for him, those aids made all the difference.

The irony

Going into the conversation, I felt sorry for my acquaintance—thinking of all the things he couldn’t do because of his disability. But as we talked, I realised that he felt sorry for me. I was suddenly thrust into this world without the lifelong support he had, and I had the memory of what life was like before.

A whole new world

I do feel like I’ve entered a whole new world, filled with new experiences, new people and a new understanding of what it means to be disabled. I’m certainly still a babe in the woods, humbled by what some people with disabilities face every day. Then you see the Paralympics—how inspiring!—and it hits you: you may be disabled, but you’re not dead. There’s a whole new world out there waiting to be explored.