Here’s an excerpt from an official guide for volunteers at the Beijing Olympics regarding appropriate disability etiquette:
Some physically disabled are isolated, unsocial, and introspective. They can be stubborn and controlling . . . defensive and have a strong sense of inferiority.
And believe me, that’s on a good day.
It goes on:
They show no differences in sensation, reaction, memorisation and thinking mechanism from other people, but they might have unusual personalities because of disfigurement and disability.
Wow, it’s like the people who wrote this book are talking about me.
I hope they didn’t leave out any vital information, like our hatred of sunlight and how we bring bad luck to anyone unfortunate enough to accidentally touch us.
