What is 'the Norm'

I'm a Support Worker. 

This job has numerous titles - Care Assistant, Care Practitioner, Care at Home Assistant, Community Alarm Staff, Personal Assistant, but all these titles effectively mean the same thing. 

 People in this line of work, my line of work, are at the very forefront of other people's lives. We help people who may have any number or form of disabilities to have a 'normal life'. Because  quite often people with disabilities are still seen to be 'abnormal' in some way. 

 A disability can be caused by any number of factors - age, genes, gender, an accident or fall and issues during or at birth can all lead to a disability. Brain damage is a big cause and this can be caused by something as minor as a bump to the head. A car accident or assault can also leave you with enough brain damage to be left with a disability for the rest of your life. Sadly many members of the public can't wrap their heads around the fact that at any time, suddenly your life could just change. Families also struggle with a change in their relative if something happens, and this is mainly because people still see people who have a disability as being heavily reliant on others. This isn't always true and from my personal experiences I've worked with people who require 24 hour care and support, adults who need constant supervision, people who require sporadic visits and people who are so independent that they don't need support at all. These four very different groups of people have only one thing in common - they're all registered disabled. 

People with a disability are often viewed as 'different' or 'strange' or 'not normal' but to be honest I think people have lost sight of what the word 'normal' actually means. Normal is something that is different to every single person on this planet. For some people it's normal to go to work every day, but that's not everyone. For some people normal is driving a car to work, but that's not everyone. For some people normal is jumping onto a private jet and flying halfway around the world because you fancied some proper Colombian coffee beans, but that's definitely not a normality for most people. 

Normal is an image that is different to each person who seeks it, because at the end of the day it's what you as a person define it as and since everyone's an individual there's got to be over 7 billion different 'normals' spread all over the world.

 Someone who has a disability is much more easily incorporated and accepted into society than they were as little as 30 and 40 years ago, but discrimination is still there and still needs to be more widely challenged within society. People are people at the end of the day and we're all that little bit different, it's a part of what makes us human. You've got to see the person before you see the disability, after all we wouldn't define each other as 'blondie' or 'specs' or 'terrible fashion sense' (well my pals would, these are some of my personal nicknames!)

 A woman I work with at the moment has a disability that means she has limited upper body movement and she can't weight bear, so she's in a wheelchair to get about. But she's not long achieved a doctorate at University, she's set up her own business and has just landed a part time job. Her neighbour helps out teaching foreign languages in a local primary school where she is totally adored by the children. 

Personal ability is a perception and normality is an easily achievable illusion, if it were not for people holding themselves back with their lack of confidence, and holding others back with their outdated views and their lack of belief in others. 

Acceptance isn't something anybody should have to fight for so just be nice to each other, eh?