Last fall when I went to the Closing the Gap conference, I met a few moms who used business cards. The cards weren’t for themselves per se but shared information about their daughter’s who had Rett Syndrome. There is so much we don’t know about people with disabilities. It’s easy to make quick assumptions based on what we see. (You know what they say about assumptions, they tend to be wrong.) Cards allow for information to be shared without having to go into a 10-minute verbal dissertation. It isn’t that I feel the need to explain, but to educate. Honestly, I hate having to educate, but how else are people going to understand unless someone takes the time to share?
This morning Jess could have used such a card. We were at the check out counter at the market. She wanted M&M’s and I said no. Who eats M&M’s at 9 am? Then the cashier, bless her heart, offered to buy them for her? Yes, a kind gesture, but who does that? Jess is 23, not six? She was treating Jess “special” and not in a good way. [Read more…] about Let me introduce myself, here’s my card