Inspiring Voices: A Collection of Quotes from Disabled Individuals

"What I learned was that these athletes were not disabled, they were super–abled. The Olympics is where heroes are made. The Paralympics is where heroes come."

- Joey Reiman

"Believe you can and you’re halfway there."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"Life is all about balance. Since I have only one leg, I understand that well."

- Sandy Fussell

"People with disabilities are individually different from each other. We have different goals and views. We have different approaches to life. We are just human beings who want equal access to reach our different goals."

- Sean Pevsner

"Abled does not mean enabled. Disabled does not mean less abled."

- Khang Kijarro Nguyen

"The measure of a man, or woman, is not so much what they have accomplished, though that has weight. It often is much more though what that man or woman has overcome to accomplish what they have."

- Leif Gregersen

"I do not have a disability, I have a gift! Others may see it as a disability, but I see it as a challenge. This challenge is a gift because I have to become stronger to get around it, and smarter to figure out how to use it; others should be so lucky."

- Shane E. Bryan

"It’s important to understand that disability is a natural part of the human experience and that people with disabilities deserve equal rights, opportunities, and respect. I wish people outside the disability community understood the significance of inclusive practices and the value of diverse perspectives in all aspects of life."

- Dr. Yvette Pegues

"When you focus on someone’s disability you’ll overlook their abilities, beauty and uniqueness. Once you learn to accept and love them for who they are, you subconsciously learn to love yourself unconditionally."

- Yvonne Pierre

"Aerodynamically the bumblebee shouldn’t be able to fly, but the bumblebee doesn’t know that so it goes on flying anyway."

- Mary Kay Ash

"So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem improbable, and then, when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable."

- Christopher Reeve

"It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop."

- Confucius

"The world worries about disability more than disabled people do."

- Warwick Davis

"When you hear the word ‘disabled,’ people immediately think about people who can’t walk or talk or do everything that people take for granted. Now, I take nothing for granted. But I find the real disability is people who can’t find joy in life and are bitter."

- Teri Garr

"Recognizing the importance of accessibility and inclusivity is vital. For example, having ramps and wider doorways not only benefits wheelchair users but also individuals with mild cerebral palsy, who may experience difficulty with coordination or movement on one side of their body. This promotes equality and empathy for everyone."

- Ashley Glears

"People with disabilities are just as worthy as those without disabilities to live happy, productive lives."

- Sydney Badeau

"It’s the repetition of affirmations that leads to belief. And once that belief becomes a deep conviction, things begin to happen."

- Muhammad Ali

"Ableist ideas and beliefs affect people with disabilities in all aspects of life, including employment, healthcare, education, housing, transportation, etc. These ideas and beliefs create systems that discriminate and oppress people with disabilities."

- Theo W. Braddy

"Deafness does not prevent people from being successful — discrimination is the main barrier we face."

- Sheryl Emery

"I’m officially disabled, but I’m truly enabled because of my lack of limbs. My unique challenges have opened up unique opportunities to reach so many in need."

- Nick Vujicic

"Your success and happiness lies in you. Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulties."

- Helen Keller

"I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination."

- Jimmy Dean

"Today I choose life. Every morning when I wake up I can choose joy, happiness, negativity, pain… To feel the freedom that comes from being able to continue to make mistakes and choices – today I choose to feel life, not to deny my humanity but embrace it."

- Kevyn Aucoin

"Keep your face always toward the sunshine – and shadows will fall behind you."

- Walt Whitman

"Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence."

- Helen Keller

"I was slightly brain damaged at birth, and I want people like me to see that they shouldn’t let a disability get in the way. I want to raise awareness – I want to turn my disability into ability."

- Susan Boyle

"I choose not to place ‘DIS’, in my ability."

- Robert M. Hensel

"Never bend your head. Always hold it high. Look the world straight in the eye."

- Helen Keller

"Just because a man lacks the use of his eyes doesn’t mean he lacks vision."

- Stevie Wonder

"I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And I will not let what I cannot do interfere with what I can do."

- Edward Everett Hale

"Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they’ve been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It’s an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It’s a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing."

- Muhammad Ali

"We could never learn to be brave and patient, if there were only joy in the world."

- Helen Keller

"The biggest barriers I’ve faced have been from people who make assumptions about what I can’t do, who assume that because I’m in a wheelchair I can’t be an athlete or I won’t be competitive. That’s ok because I’m focused, single-minded and good at blocking those people."

- Tanni Grey-Thompson

"Disability is natural. We must stop believing that disabilities keep a person from doing something. Because that’s not true… Having a disability doesn’t stop me from doing anything."

- Benjamin Snow

"However difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at."

- Stephen Hawking

"Disability doesn’t make you exceptional, but questioning what you think you know about it does"

- Stella Young

"I don’t need easy. I just need possible."

- Bethany Hamilton

"Know me for my abilities, not my disability."

- Robert M. Hensel

"My advice to other disabled people would be, concentrate on things your disability doesn’t prevent you doing well, and don’t regret the things it interferes with. Don’t be disabled in spirit as well as physically."

- Stephen Hawking

"We need to make every single thing accessible to every single person with a disability."

- Stevie Wonder

"I am different, not less."

- Dr. Temple Grandin

"Accessibility allows us to tap into everyone’s potential."

- Debra Ruh

"Part of the problem is that we tend to think that equality is about treating everyone the same, when it’s not. It’s about fairness. It’s about equity of access."

- Judith Heumann

"I don’t have a dis-ability, I have a different-ability."

- Robert M. Hensel

"Abled does not mean enabled. Disabled does not mean less abled"

- Khang Kijarro Nguyen

"I wanna see a feisty group of disabled people around the world…if you don’t respect yourself and if you don’t demand what you believe in for yourself, you’re not gonna get it."

- Judith Heumann

"My disability exists not because I use a wheelchair, but because the broader environment isn’t accessible"

- Stella Young

"As a disabled man, let my life be a reflection of the endless amount of ability that exists in each and everyone of us."

- Robert M. Hensel

"The only disability in life is a bad attitude."

- Scott Hamilton

"Disability is a matter of perception. If you can do just one thing well, you’re needed by someone."

- Martina Navratilova

"A hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles."

- Christopher Reeve

"a wonderful achievement. But it was only the tip of the iceberg. You can pass a law but until you can change society’s attitudes, that law won’t mean much."

- Denise Sherer Jacobson

"There is no greater disability in society, than the inability to see a person as more."

- Robert M. Hensel

"I wish for a world that views disability, mental or physical, not as a hindrance but as unique attributes that can be seen as powerful assets if given the right opportunities"

- Oliver Sacks

"My effort in the whole thing was the basic determination, the burning desire in me to prove to this world that a physically handicapped girl is in no way inferior."

- Sudha Chandran

"This is my life and I absolutely love it. I wouldn’t change it for the world. I’ve done things that other people couldn’t dream of."

- Jonnie Peacock

"Disability cannot stop me from becoming a complete personality"

- Samyak Lalit

"If the world thinks you’re not good enough, it’s a lie, you know. Get a second opinion."

- Nick Vujicic

"At the end of the day, we can endure much more than we think we can."

- Frida Kahlo

"In life, just find something you love and make it your life. That is the only way to be successful. Love what you do."

- Hannah Cockcroft

"There is a plan and a purpose, a value to every life, no matter what its location, age, gender or disability"

- Sharron Angle

"Ability is what you’re capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it."

- Lou Holtz

"Know your limits, but never stop trying to break them."

- Kyle Maynard

"Your present circumstances don’t determine where you can go; they merely determine where you start."

- Nibo Qubein

"I have a Disability yes that’s true, but all that really means is I may have to take a slightly different path than you."

- Robert M. Hensel

"I can see there’s a connection between not following normal thinking and doing creative thinking. I wouldn’t have had good scientific ideas if I had thought more normally."

- John Forbes Nash Jr.

"Acceptance doesn’t mean resignation; it means understanding that something is what it is and that there’s got to be a way through it."

- Michael J. Fox

"The world worries about disability more than disabled people do"

- Warwick Davis

"Everything is going to work out – there’s no other option."

- Kari Miller

"It is so important to showcase people with disabilities with intersectional identities because that allows viewers to see beyond disability….People with disabilities are multilayered—we are complex breathing human beings defined by more than just what we lack."

- Lauren Ridloff

"If we are to achieve a richer culture, we must weave one in which each diverse human gift will find a fitting place."

- Margaret Meade

"We have the can-do factor, and us doing what we do inspires people to just try that little bit harder, whether they are able-bodied or disabled."

- Lee Pearson

"Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds."

- Franklin D. Roosevelt

"Silence is the last thing the world will ever hear from me."

- Marlee Matlin

"I wanted to be part of the world, but I didn’t see anyone like me in it."

- Jim LeBrecht

"I wish people would stop constantly infantilizing adults with disabilities, especially those who are nonspeaking or minimally speaking."

- Elizabeth "Lizzy" Graham

"I wish people would stop using derogatory terms about people with disabilities and assuming that having a disability means you can't do something. For example, I enjoy 20+ adapted sports and my activity is a form of activism."

- Dr. Yvette Pegues

"People should stop automatically assuming that we are brave for dealing with our disabilities. People should stop considering us vulnerable people who cannot work and contribute to our community."

- Sean Pevsner

"I wish they would stop making fun of and looking down on people with disabilities. I also wish they would stop treating people with disabilities like children. Often time, people with intellectual and developmental disabilities are treated like children. They’re not - they’re adults."

- Melody Cooper

"One thing that I wish people would stop assuming is that people who experience disability are living off the government. This is not the case at all. We need the assistance to live a normal life like everyone else in the world and we are trying to make something for ourselves with the support we have provided to us."

- Ric Nelson

"That I am lacking something or 'living in darkness.' Or that I am perpetually afraid of the world around me just because I can’t see it. My life experience is rich with many other sensations, thoughts and emotions that have nothing to do with vision or lack thereof."

- Arielle Silverman

"There are Deaf people in almost every profession. Don’t assume because a person cannot hear that they are incapable. Not everyone lip reads and we do not have better sight to make up for not being able to hear. We enjoy music, we drive. The biggest barriers we face are attitudes."

- Sheryl Emery

"The biggest misconception is they're underestimating me and the 61 million others like me - this comes from a long history of devaluing people like me."

- Theo W. Braddy

"Society has taught me from a young age that I can’t show my autism in public. So, a lot of my struggles are in my house, alone. A lot of the struggle is behind the scenes."

- Russell Lehmann

"One big misconception is that I am not able to follow directions, learn, or be employable. I want to work, so I can be independent and get my own apartment."

- Marcus Stewart

"That not everyone with a disability presents in the same way. Some may struggle with something while others may not, and each person may need different or unique accommodations."

- Sydney Badeau

"One common misconception people have about me and my abilities is assuming that I'm only capable of simple tasks or responses, when in reality, I'm capable of understanding complex concepts and engaging in meaningful conversations across a wide range of topics."

- Ashley Glears

"Stop saying people with disabilities are a vulnerable population. People with disabilities are not weak and fragile - this characterization does more harm than good."

- Theo W. Braddy

"People have the misconception that I cannot represent people in cases. They assume incorrectly that since I have a speech impairment, I cannot argue for my clients’ best interest. It is very tiring to have to constantly prove myself."

- Sean Pevsner

"People have thought that I would never be anything or do anything, that I don’t know what’s going on in the world. Having an intellectual disability does not mean you’re dumb. They work harder than most just to do things others take for granted. They may need help with certain things, but don’t we all?"

- Melody Cooper

"Ask many of us who are disabled what we would like in life and you would be surprised how few would say, ‘Not to be disabled.’ We accept our limitations."

- Itzhak Perlman

"Every person with disability is an individual"

- Itzhak Perlman

"Whether someone is useful only matters if you value people by their use."

- Corinne Duyvis

"I wish they would stop saying I am amazing or inspiring when I do ordinary things."

- Arielle Silverman

"Stop asking Deaf people if we can read your lips. Communication is the responsibility of all parties in a conversation. Asking the Deaf person to read your lips places all the responsibility for communicating on the Deaf person."

- Sheryl Emery

"I operate at the intersections of a woman of color with visible and non-visible disabilities, so I encounter many layers of misconceptions in my life. Nevertheless, I’m a proud wife, mom, engineer, educator, and advocate. My daily fight for the cessation of stereotypes and stigmatizing language surrounding disability is not for me, but others without the voice to fight for themselves. I wish people understood the innovative contributions that disabled people bring to communities and society."

- Dr. Yvette Pegues

"I wish people would refrain from making assumptions or judgments about individuals with disabilities based solely on their appearance or perceived limitations. It's important to approach each person with respect, understanding, and open-mindedness."

- Ashley Glears

"Hard things are put in our way, not to stop us, but to call out our courage and strength."